New York prosecutors are seeking a limited gag order barring former President Donald Trump from talking about witnesses and court staff to “protect the integrity of this criminal proceeding” ahead of his trial next month on charges he falsified business records.
The “need for such protection is compelling,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a court filing Monday. Trump “has a long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him, including jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and court staff.”
“Those remarks, as well as the inevitable reactions they incite from defendant’s followers and allies, pose a significant and imminent threat to the orderly administration of this criminal proceeding and a substantial likelihood of causing material prejudice,” Bragg’s office added.
The DA is seeking a “narrowly tailored order” barring Trump from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses” in the case, talking about prosecutors in the case besides Bragg, members of the court’s staff and the DA’s staff and they’re relatives, concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding, and “any prospective juror” or juror in the case.
It argues the order is necessary because “Defendant has a longstanding and perhaps singular history of using social media, speeches, rallies, and other public statements to attack individuals that he considers to be adversaries, including ‘courts, judges, various law enforcement officials and other public officials, and even individual jurors in other matters.’”
NBC News has reached out to a spokesman for Trump’s campaign for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
