New York high court won’t consider Trump bid to lift gag order for now
By
Kaelan Deese
June 18, 2024 11:08 am
.
The highest appeals court in New York declined Tuesday to hear former President Donald Trump‘s appeal to the gag order in his criminal hush money case, though the court left open the option for an appeal in the future.
The New York Court of Appeals wrote it would not hear the appeal because “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.” The decision comes after Trump was already found guilty by a Manhattan jury last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records, though the gag order has so far remained in place ahead of his July 11 sentencing.
Trump’s lawyers have simultaneously asked presiding Judge Juan Merchan to lift the order after the conviction, arguing that the state and the court “do not justify restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump” now that the trial has concluded.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office opposed Trump’s more recent request to Merchan, writing that the order wasn’t just needed to “avoid threats to the fairness of the trial itself,” but on the court’s “broader ‘obligation to prevent actual harm to the integrity of the proceedings.'”
more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/3049583/new-york-high-court-wont-consider-trump-bid-gag-order/
