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Trump appeals gag order in New York “hush money” trial
Former President Donald Trump is seeking to have New York’s highest court intervene in his fight over a gag order that has seen him fined $10,000 and threatened with jail for violating a ban on commenting about witnesses, jurors and others connected to his hush money criminal trial.
The former president’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, a day after the state’s mid-level appellate court refused his request to lift or modify the restrictions. The filing was listed on a court docket, but the document itself was sealed and not available.
Trump presidential campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said it’s a request for the state’s Court of Appeals to take up the matter.
“President Trump has filed a notice to appeal the unconstitutional and un-American gag order imposed by conflicted Judge Juan Merchan in the lawless Manhattan DA case,” Cheung said in a statement.
“The threat to throw the 45th President of the United States and the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election in jail for exercising his First Amendment rights is a Third World authoritarian tactic typical of Crooked Joe Biden and his comrades,” Cheung said.
A five-judge panel of the mid-level appeals court, the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court, ruled Tuesday that Merchan “properly determined” that Trump’s public statements “posed a significant threat to the integrity of the testimony of witnesses and potential witnesses in this case as well.”
“We find that Justice Merchan properly weighed petitioner’s First Amendment Rights against the court’s historical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases, and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal proceedings from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment, and harm,” the ruling said.
Merchan has held Trump in contempt of court for violating the order 10 times, with a $1,000 fine for each violation. Last week, he warned Trump that he could be sent to jail for future violations.
Craig Ruttle / Getty Images
The latest violation concerned comments Trump made about the political make-up of the jury. In a written order on May 6, Merchan said Trump’s comments “not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the specter of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones.”
Trump had asked the state’s intermediate appeals court to lift or modify the gag order. Among other restrictions, it bars him from making or directing others to make statements about witnesses like his fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen, who will testify for a third day Thursday. It also prohibits comments about court staff, the judge’s family and prosecutors other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Bragg’s office declined comment. A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for the state court system.
“The gag order has to come off,” Trump told reporters as he headed into court Tuesday. Later, he lamented, “As you know, I’m under a gag order, so I can’t answer those very simple questions you’re asking me.”
Among the violations were Trump’s several attacks on Cohen, including an April 13 social media post asking, “Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs!”
Merchan also flagged reposts Trump made of a New York Post article that described Cohen as a “serial perjurer,” and a Trump post quoting Fox News host Jesse Watters’ claim that liberal activists were lying to infiltrate the jury.
Merchan’s jail warning came after he ruled Trump had violated the gag order a final time when, in an April 22 interview with television channel Real America’s Voice, he criticized the speed at which the jury was picked and claimed, without evidence, that it was stacked with Democrats.
Merchan issued the gag order March 26 after prosecutors raised concerns about Trump’s propensity to attack people involved in his cases. He expanded it April 1 to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump lashed out on social media at the judge’s daughter, a Democratic political consultant, and made false claims about her.
Trump appealed the gag order April 8, just days before the start of jury selection. At an emergency hearing before a single judge of the Appellate Division, Trump’s lawyers argued the order was an unconstitutional curb on the Republican presidential nominee’s free speech rights while he’s campaigning and fighting criminal charges.
Specifically, according to court papers, Trump challenged restrictions on his ability to comment about Matthew Colangelo, a former Justice Department official who is a part of the prosecution team, and Merchan’s daughter, whose firm has worked for Trump’s rival, President Joe Biden, and other Democrats.
In its ruling Tuesday, the Appellate Division noted that Trump wasn’t claiming that the gag order had infringed on his right to a fair trial. Rather, Trump’s lawyers argued that prohibiting him from commenting about Colangelo and Loren Merchan restricted his ability to engage in protected political speech and could adversely affect his campaign.
The appeals court ruled that Judge Merchan “properly weighed” Trump’s free speech rights against the “historical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases, and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal proceedings from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment, and harm.”
Floodwaters pushed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene left North Carolina’s largest mountain city largely cut off Saturday by damaged roads and a lack of power and cellphone service, part of a swath of destruction across southern Appalachia that left an unknown number dead and countless worried relatives unable to reach loved ones.
In North Carolina alone, more than 400 roads remained closed on Saturday as floodwaters began to recede and reveal the extent of damage. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said that supplies were being airlifted to that part of the state. Cooper said two people died in his state, Helene killed at least 52 people across multiple states.
Among those rescued from rising waters was nurse Janetta Barfield, whose car was swamped on Friday morning as she left an overnight shift at Asheville’s Mission Hospital. She said she watched a car in front of her drive through standing water and thought it was safe to proceed. But her car stalled, and within minutes water had filled her front seat up to her chest. A nearby police officer who saw her car stall helped her to safety.
“It was unbelievable how fast that creek got just in like five minutes,” Barfield said.
Erik Verduzco / AP
Early on Saturday morning, many gas stations were closed because they didn’t have electricity, and the few that were open had hourlong lines wrapped around the block. The hub of tourism and arts, home to about 94,000 people, was unusually still after floodwaters swamped neighborhoods known for drawing visitors including Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, which is home to numerous galleries, shops and breweries.
More than 700,000 power customers were without power across North Carolina, including 160,000 in Buncombe County. Interstate 40 and I-26 were impassible in multiple locations, and a state transportation department map showed that most routes into Asheville and across much of the mountains were snarled. North Carolina’s Department of Transportation posted on social media on Saturday afternoon that “all roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed.”
In Asheville, there was no cellular service and no timeline for when it would be restored.
“We have had some loss of life,” County Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones told reporters. However, he said they were not ready to report any specifics. Officials have been hindered in contacting next of kin by the communications outages. Asheville police instituted a curfew from 7:30 p.m. Friday to 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
“The curfew is to ensure the public’s safety and will be in effect until further notice,” police said.
Asheville transit services were also suspended, police said. The city advised residents to boil “all water used for human consumption,” as there was at least one significant water line break during the storm. Many residents might not be getting water or reduced or no pressure water.
Jones said the area experienced a cascade of emergencies that included heavy rain, high winds and mudslides. Officials said they tried to prepare for the storm but its magnitude was beyond what they could have imagined.
“It’s not that we (were) not prepared, but this is going to another level,” Sheriff Quentin Miller said. “To say this caught us off-guard would be an understatement.”
Erik Verduzco / AP
Atlanta resident Francine Cavanaugh said she has been unable to reach her sister, son, or friends in the Asheville area.
“My sister checked in with me yesterday morning to find out how I was in Atlanta,” she said on Saturday. “The storm was just hitting her in Asheville, and she said it sounded really scary outside.”
Cavanaugh said her sister had no idea how bad the storm would be there. She told Cavanaugh she was going to head out to check on guests at a vacation cabin “and that’s the last I heard of her. I’ve been texting everyone that I know with no response. All phone calls go directly to voicemail.”
The CEO of a hospital operator that filed for bankruptcy protection in May will step down after failing to testify before a U.S. Senate panel.
Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has overseen a network of some 30 hospitals around the country. The Texas-based company’s troubled recent history has drawn scrutiny from elected officials in New England, where some of its hospitals are located.
A spokesperson for de la Torre told the Associated Press Saturday that he “has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms” and “will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population.”
A CBS News investigation that spanned nearly two years documented how private equity investors and de la Torre extracted hundreds of millions of dollars while healthcare workers and patients struggled to get the life-saving supplies they needed.
In August, the company closed two Massachusetts hospitals, leaving about 1,200 workers jobless, according to the state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said earlier this month that Congress “will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America.”
De la Torre’s resignation is effective Oct. 1. The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday that was intended to hold him in criminal contempt for failing to testify before a committee.
The Senate panel has been looking into Steward’s bankruptcy. De la Torre did not appear before it despite being issued a subpoena. The resolution refers the matter to a federal prosecutor.
Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
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