Manhattan DA Asks For Gag Order on Trump to Protect Jurors and Court Staff Ahead of Trial

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked a judge to impose a gag order on former President Donald Trump on Monday ahead of the trial related to Trump’s hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

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,” wrote the DA’s office in a court filing.

The filing added that Trump’s public attacks “pose a significant and imminent threat to the orderly administration of this criminal proceeding.” Trump has a long history of publicly attacking prosecutors, judges, and the judicial system in general.

Trump has previously had partial gag orders placed on him in both his federal election interference case and his civil fraud trial in New York, in which Trump personally attacked the judge, the judge’s wife, and the court’s clerk — going so far as to share her name, photo, and a link to her personal Instagram account.

The New York court documented the “hundreds of threatening, harassing, disparaging and antisemitic” threats sent to Judge Arthur Engoron in the wake of Trump’s attacks on him and his wife, whom Trump misidentified on social media as posting criticism of him.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34-count indictment against him in New York related to his allegedly falsifying business documents to cover up payments to Stormy Daniels, who he had an affair with shortly after the birth of his youngest child. ABC News noted that Trump has already attacked “Judge Juan Merchan, as well as witnesses that include Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.”

The trial is scheduled to begin on March 25th.

This is a breaking story and has been updated.