Merchan ultimately sided with the prosecution, noting that Trump does not have a good track record of measured responses, and denied the motion to modify the gag order. And with good reason: Trump has a history of attacking witnesses in his court cases. He couldn’t refrain from violating a gag order in his bank fraud trial, attacking Judge Arthur Engoron’s principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield. Even earlier than that, he had a gag order imposed in his Washington, D.C., trial related to his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
Regardless, it’s ridiculous to suggest that intimidating witnesses to an alleged crime is protected speech under the Constitution. But it’s no surprise that Habba is making this argument, considering her own record of legal missteps and unhinged assertions. She made the boneheaded move of stating that she didn’t have high hopes for Trump’s acquittal in the hush-money case late last month, and also seemed to admit his guilt in attempting to state that he did nothing wrong.
She claimed that the New York state law requiring Trump to attend all of his criminal trial proceedings violated his right to due process because he couldn’t attend his trials in other locations. And none of this includes her missteps in his defamation trial earlier this year, where she was reprimanded a whopping 12 times in one day.
