Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the courthouse after a jury found him guilty of all 34 crimes in his criminal trial in the New York State Supreme Court in New York on May 30, 2024.
Justin Lane | Via Reuters
New York’s highest court on Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s appeal against the hush money trial.
The New York appeals court, in a brief decision, declined to hear Trump’s bid “on the grounds that no substantive constitutional question was directly involved.”
The decision means Trump’s gag order, which prohibits him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and other parties involved in the Manhattan Supreme Court case, remains in effect.
Trump’s lawyers have also asked Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, to lift the gag order because the trial is over.
However, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office urged Merchan to keep the restrictions in place at least until a sentencing hearing is held and certain post-trial motions are resolved.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that the former president and his legal team will “continue to fight the unconstitutional gag order imposed by Judge Merchan.”
The order “unjustly silences Trump at the height of his campaign,” Cheung said, adding that voters “have a fundamental right to hear his message.”
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche and a spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
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Trump was found guilty last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just four days before his party holds its nomination convention.
The crime of falsifying business records carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison in New York, although Merchan could impose a sentence that spares Trump any time behind bars.
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2024-06-18 16:33:35
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