In a five-page ruling issued Tuesday, Judge Marchan acknowledged that “circumstances have changed” since the trial ended and the jury was dismissed. He said he reluctantly lifted some of the gag orders that applied to the jury and upheld a March order requiring jurors’ identities to be kept confidential.
The gag order still applies to lawyers other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), prosecutors, court officials, Bragg’s staff and their families.
“Pending sentencing, these individuals must continue to carry out their lawful duties without threat, intimidation, harassment or harm,” Marchan wrote.
A Trump campaign spokesman criticized Judge Melchan’s ruling for not ending censorship orders entirely.
“This is another unlawful ruling by a deeply conflicted judge that will prevent President Trump, a leading 2024 presidential candidate, from speaking at Thursday’s scheduled presidential debate and is patently un-American,” spokesman Steven Chang said in a statement. “President Trump and his legal team will immediately challenge today’s unconstitutional ruling.”
President Trump is scheduled to face President Biden in the first debate of the 2024 election on CNN on Thursday.
Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison, but Trump will likely serve less time or none at all.
Trump has long opposed the gag order, publicly criticizing it as a violation of his First Amendment rights and seeking thousands of dollars in fines for violating it. Trump has long been particularly harsh on two of the people who appeared as witnesses in the trial: adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who was at the center of the hush money scheme, and Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Days after the May 30 ruling, Trump’s lawyers sought to have the gag order lifted in its entirety, but prosecutors opposed the move. Last week, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, rejected Trump’s appeal of the gag order.
In his ruling on Tuesday, Judge Marchan expressed persistent concerns about the jurors, saying there was “sufficient evidence to justify continuing concerns” about them. His previous order from March prohibited the identities of the jurors from being made public and limited access to them to only the parties and their lawyers.
