Will Trump Get Gag Order In Manhattan DA Case? Here’s What That Would Mean

Topline

Former President Donald Trump is set to be arraigned Tuesday after he was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office—and the court could impose a gag order that would cut him off from publicly discussing the case and impose legal consequences if he does, as the ex-president has already lashed out over his indictment and reportedly plans to ramp up his attacks.

Former President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at Quad City International Airport on March 13 … [+] in Moline, Illinois.

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Facts

A gag order is an order imposed by a judge in a criminal or civil case that blocks a party (including attorneys or witnesses) from publicly talking about the case, though the exact terms of the order and what can and cannot be said vary.

If a gag order is violated, the party could be held in contempt of court, which in New York carries a punishment of a $1,000 fine and/or up to 30 days in prison.

Legal experts cited by Insider and Bloomberg said it’s possible and even “extremely likely” the court could impose a gag order on Trump, particularly given security concerns arising from his attacks on prosecutors or other figures in the case, though there are First Amendment issues given that he’s running for president that could make any broad restrictions on his speech legally problematic.

Any gag order would likely be “narrowly tailored” to only cover certain kinds of information about the case, Katie Townsend, deputy executive director and legal director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told Bloomberg.

It’s most likely a gag order would be put on Trump when he’s arraigned Tuesday as a condition for his release from custody, former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin told Insider, and the former president’s attorneys could also be barred from publicly discussing the case so as to not taint the jury pool ahead of a trial.

The order would be issued by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over the case—an “absolutely no-nonsense judge,” according to Levin, whom Trump has already attacked on social media.

What To Watch For

Trump is scheduled to surrender in Manhattan on Tuesday, and will be fingerprinted and arraigned before being released ahead of trial. The ex-president has already said he plans to make a public speech Tuesday night from his Mar-A-Lago estate after his arraignment, which could be the first test of the gag order against him if one is imposed. If Trump does violate a gag order against him, Levin told Insider the court would likely give him a few chances before holding him in contempt of court, rather than immediately punishing him upon a first offense.

Crucial Quote

“This is a criminal case now, so the rules have changed, and the rules are no longer in [Trump’s] purview to make,” Levin, who represented media mogul Harvey Weinstein and fake heiress Anna Sorokin, told Insider. “He is a criminal defendant and, you know, we see hundreds of thousands of criminal defendants across the country every day who have a lot of rights stripped away from them and he is now one of them. These proceedings are going to change his life.”

Tangent

Trump ally Roger Stone was placed under a gag order after he was indicted in 2019, which increasingly got stricter as Stone continued to speak out about the case against him. Stone was initially placed under an order that only restricted him from speaking about the case when in or near the courthouse in Washington, D.C., which then expanded to block him from speaking out about the case or posting on social media about it entirely after he shared an image that appeared to show the judge in crosshairs. (Stone claimed the crosshairs were actually an “occult symbol.”) A few months later, he was then barred from using social media altogether after continuing to make posts that the judge said violated the order against him.

Key Background

Trump was indicted Thursday on charges stemming from “hush money” payments made in 2016 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, which the then-president allegedly reimbursed his attorney Michael Cohen for making. The indictment is still under seal but is believed to include more than 30 counts against Trump, including multiple charges for falsifying business records and at least one felony offense, according to the Associated Press. Trump has lashed out against the charges, calling it “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” and has publicly attacked Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for being politically biased against him. The possibility of Trump facing a gag order comes as the Guardian reports the ex-president is wanting to escalate his attacks on Bragg even further, telling advisors he wants to go on “offense” and politically “rough ‘em up.”

Will Trump Get Gag Order In Manhattan DA Case? Here’s What That Would Mean—And Why It Could Land Him In Prison