Judge’s Order In Trump Case Comes Too Late

Daily Report May 11,2024

Friday’s session of former President Donald Trump’s ongoing trial concluded with a significant development. New York Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding judge, issued an order directing prosecutors to instruct Michael Cohen not to make public remarks about the case.

While Trump remains gagged, Cohen —prosecutors’ star witness— has remained free to attack the president publicly. Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, asked the judge to order Cohen not to speak publicly about Trump or the case until it is over.

CNN legal analyst: "I've never seen a witness who's lied to Congress, who's lied to court, who's lied to the IRS, who's lied to the Southern District of New York, who lied to his banker. The entire prosecution witness team has been lied to by Michael Cohen." pic.twitter.com/d9tdGbqfzU

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) May 10, 2024

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“It’s becoming a big problem every single day that the president is not allowed to respond to this witness but Cohen is allowed to continue speaking,” Blanche told the judge.

Merchan sided with Blanche and instructed prosecutors to tell Cohen, who is set to testify on Monday, not to speak about the case.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche asks the judge to order Michael Cohen not to speak publicly about Trump or the case until it is over.

He cites Cohen's recent TikTok apperance wearing a shirt with a picture of Trump behind bars and announcing that he is now running for Congress.

— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) May 10, 2024

However, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley maintained that Merchan’s order is coming too late. Turley, in a friday interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum, revealed that he is not a fan of gag orders and would not put one on Cohen. The law professor insisted that the problem is the gag order on Trump because it’s not clear who and what Merchan is protecting.

“Cohen is out there, you know, attacking the president, campaigning against the president. People are attacking Cohen. What are you protecting against?” Turley asked. “He’s in the middle of a firestorm of his own creation and so the gag order makes no sense at all, it’s achieving nothing except silencing the leading candidate for the presidency and to have the sudden epiphany that just maybe, Cohen should be instructed not to make these statements is a bit late. I mean, he’s closing the door after the horse has gone. I mean, this is the weekend before he appears on the stand. So, I would have expected at a minimum that the judge would have been very clear at the beginning of the case that these witnesses are asked not to make public statements. But I tend not to like gag orders generally and I certainly don’t like the one against Trump which is poorly written and I think it is unconstitutional.”