In a letter sent on Friday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office asked Juan M. Merchan to “clarify or confirm that its March 26, 2024 Order Restricting Extrajudicial Statements protects family members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order; and (2) direct that defendant immediately desist from attacks on family members” after the Adjudicated Rapist/Sexual Assaulter/Fraudster assailed the judge’s daughter and made a false claim about her on social media.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass argued that the gag order’s ban on statements meant to interfere with or harass the court’s staff or their families makes the judge’s daughter off-limits from Trump’s rhetoric. He said Trump should be punished for further violations.
Trump’s lawyers contended the D.A.’s office is misinterpreting the order and said it doesn’t prohibit him from commenting about Loren Merchan, a political consultant whose firm has worked on campaigns for Trump’s rival. President Joe Biden, and other Democrats.
“The Court cannot ‘direct’ President Trump to do something that the gag order does not require,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles wrote to Merchan in a response to the prosecution’s letter. “To ‘clarify or confirm’ the meaning of the gag order in the way the People suggest would be to expand it.”
