Trump Lawyer Complains About Gag Order When CNN’s Jake Tapper Asks About Playboy Playmate Witness In Hush Money Trial

When CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Trump attorney Will Scharf about ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal being a witness against former President Donald Trump, Scharf complained about the gag order — then answered anyway.

Tapper interviewed Scharf during CNN’s branded “Trump Hush Money Trial” coverage, and asked about a ruling Judge Juan Merchan made allowing McDougal — whose alleged affair with Trump the National Enquirer’s publisher admitted to covering up “in concert” with Trump’s campaign — to testify.

Scharf did a few minutes about Merchan’s gag order before answering the question anyway, calling McDougal’s testimony “irrelevant”:

JAKE TAPPER: So, we’re told that the judge is going to allow Karen McDougal to testify — for our audience, that may not know who Karen McDougal is, Karen McDougal is the 1998 Playmate of the year, with whom Donald Trump also had a relationship, although I think longer term, allegedly.

And she was paid money by David Pecker of the company that owns, American — the National Enquirer. It’s called American Media, I believe.

And so I guess the idea here is from the prosecution is that this would establish a record, a pattern of hush money being paid to people to keep quiet so as to not embarrass the president before the presidential election.

What is your reaction to the news that Judge Merchan is going to allow Karen McDougal to testify, although not apparently about any explicit details?

WILL SCHARF: Yeah. You know, Jake, it’s it’s a difficult question to answer because of the gag order that Judge Merchan placed against President Trump that prohibits us from commenting on potential witness testimony.

This is the first gag order of its kind ever entered against a political candidate for office, I believe in American history. We believe it’s wildly overbroad and unconstitutional. And that certainly complicates my ability to answer your question directly.

I will say that I think that McDougal’s testimony is irrelevant here, and that’s why we moved to have it not allowed into court. And I think, again, what we’ve seen with Judge Merchan over and over again, is, is rulings like this, against this.

We’ve moved to have Judge Merchan recused off of this case due to what we believe are irretrievable conflicts and biases. And that’s an issue that’s also going to have to play out in the coming weeks.

Watch above via CNN’s “Trump Hush Money Trial” coverage.