The New York Times’ Mara Gay on Wednesday seemed to suggest that Judge Juan Merchan should maintain his gag order on former President Donald Trump to safeguard voters.
Trump’s gag order, imposed by Merchan, bars the former president from making public statements regarding witnesses, prosecutors other than the district attorney, court staff and jurors, as well as family members of the staff, district attorney or judge. Gay on “Deadline: White House” appeared to imply during a conversation about the necessity of the gag order that it protects both the jurors who convicted Trump as well as American voters. (RELATED: There’s A Long List Of Reasons To Toss Trump’s Conviction — But His Appeal Venue Isn’t The Friendliest)
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“You have to protect jurors, you have to protect voters,” Gay said. “And if we can’t do those two things in this moment, you can’t ask people to participate in democracy or to trust the process. So, this is a moment to throw everything that democracy has at this man.”
Trump is still under the gag order despite his trial being over, with the former president’s attorneys asking Merchan on Tuesday to lift the prohibition on his speech. However, Democratic Manhattan District Alvin Bragg’s office defended on Wednesday keeping Trump under the gag order, asking that it remain in place at least through the former president’s sentencing hearing in July and any post-trial motions.
“The gag order doesn’t prevent Donald Trump from making any and all political attacks against Joe Biden and his administration … There’s a carve-out for the judge himself, who has been attacked. And there’s a carve-out for Alvin Bragg,” MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said before Gay’s comments. “What it is doing is protecting witnesses and jurors. And this is one where the district attorney has asked for both sides to brief this issue, but they’re clearly going to take the position that you can’t tell witnesses and jurors, ‘hey we’re going to protect you just during the trial, but after the trial you’re on your own.’ The judge is not an idiot.”
MSNBC analyst John Heilemann chimed in to add it would be “absolutely bonkers” for Merchan to lift the gag order before Gay’s comments.
An MSNBC panel in May burst into laughter about Trump’s inability to conduct a typical reelection campaign because the gag order hampering his speech, connecting the order to the former president’s upcoming debate with President Joe Biden where microphones will be silenced during the other candidate’s speaking time.
“Donald Trump does have some experience with having his mic cut off. Which is he’s been sitting in court and wanting very badly to respond to everything with his mic cut off,” NBC News senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen said, prompting laughter from his fellow panelists. “So it’ll be interesting to see if he’s able to do that in a debate. But he has definitely had his mouth shut over the course of the last several weeks.”
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