Manhattan Judge To Issue Gag Order Against Donald Trump Ahead Of His Arrest This Week, Ex-Prez's Legal Team Claims
April 3 2023, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
Donald Trump’s legal team believes a New York judge is preparing to issue a gag order against the former president ahead of his arrest later this week, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In the latest development to come shortly after a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict former President Trump on criminal charges on Thursday, the judge assigned to Trump’s case is allegedly weighing whether to slap the embattled ex-president with a gag order.
If Trump were to break the potential gag order, he could reportedly face a $1,000 fine and up to 30 days in prison under New York law.
“The Trump legal team now thinks that the Manhattan judge will take the unprecedented step of silencing the presidential frontrunner with an unconstitutional gag order tomorrow,” one source close to the ex-president’s legal team told Daily Mail on Sunday.
“The Trump legal team is considering adding a First Amendment lawyer to the effort to combat this and will fight it all the way,” the insider added.
The potential gag order also comes shortly after Trump’s campaign announced the former president was scheduled to give a speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night shortly after arriving back in Palm Beach, Florida from his arraignment hearing in New York.
But if a gag order is issued against the embattled ex-president, his scheduled speech may be canceled.
Meanwhile, the former president has reportedly been regularly meeting with his legal team to discuss the still-sealed indictment against him.
Joe Tacopina, one of Trump’s attorneys, told CNN this weekend that the former president’s legal team will immediately file a motion to dismiss the alleged 34 criminal charges against Trump.
“We will take the indictment. We will dissect it,” Tacopina told the outlet on Sunday morning. “The team will look at every, every potential issue that we will be able to challenge, and we will challenge.”
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“And of course, I very much anticipate a motion to dismiss coming because there's no law that fits this,” Tacopina said.
Trump also took to Truth Social on Friday to lash out at the judge overseeing his case, Manhattan's Acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, because Merchan previously presided over a case last year that found the Trump Organization guilty of tax fraud.
“The judge ‘assigned’ to my Witch Hunt Case, a ‘Case’ that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME,” the embattled ex-president wrote last week.
