Marital Privilege: Judge Quashes Subpoena Seeking Melania Trump Emails in Major Blow to Alvin Bragg’s Hush Money Prosecution
July 31 2023, Published 8:06 p.m. ET
Donald Trump has proved triumphant in his efforts to fight Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's fight to gain access to former first lady Melania Trump's emails and other documents in his New York case. Judge Juan Merchan squashed the request, citing the subpoena was overly broad, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Prosecutors wanted Melania Trump's emails as part of a felony case against the ex-president.
As this outlet reported, prosecutors wanted Melania's emails as part of a felony case against Trump for alleged falsification of business records. The subpoena also sought to collect nearly one year's worth of emails between employees at the Trump Organization and White House officials.
They specifically wanted several email conversations between Melania and Trump's ex-executive assistant, Rhona Graff, as well as Graff's email communication with the former director of Oval Office operations, Keith Schiller.
But emails weren't the only history Braggs and his team wanted access to.
The judge said Alvin Bragg's subpoena was overly broad.
Prosecutors also sought more than two years of the ex-president's travel itineraries. The judge shut down Bragg's request on July 7 but the decision was not made public until last week, reported CBS News.
"This request would yield significantly more responsive records than necessary," Merchan wrote in response to the subpoena for Melania's emails.
They wanted emails between Melania and Trump's ex-executive assistant, Rhona Graff.
Judge Merchan also partially blocked Bragg's subpoena seeking confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements in connection to 17 current and former Trump Organization staffers, ruling that prosecutors failed to document why 10 of those people were relevant to the case.
The D.A. didn't get completely shut down though.
The judge indicated he wouldn't block a separate subpoena over the videotaped deposition Trump handed over to his attorneys in connection to writer E. Jean Carroll.
As RadarOnline.com reported in May, the former commander-in-chief was found liable for sexually abusing her.
Donald Trump has been accused of falsifying business records.
Snippets of the deposition were played for the jury at the federal civil trial. While Judge Merchan didn't order the tape to be turned over, he told prosecutors to take the next step in seeking the footage by instructing them to ask the federal judge if the rest of the video is protected by a confidentiality order.
The order was put in place before the trial.
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Trump has repeatedly dragged Merchan on his Truth Social platform, claiming the judge "hates" him. He also tried to get Merchan's recused from the criminal case, citing donations the judge made to Democratic causes totaling $35.
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