Appeals court upholds Trump's gag order as he again presses judge to bow out of hush money case
CTV
Two months after his felony conviction, Donald Trump still isn't allowed to say everything he wants about his historic hush money criminal case. After a New York appeals court upheld his gag order on Thursday, he won't be for a while.
Two months after his felony conviction, Donald Trump still isn't allowed to say everything he wants about his historic hush money criminal case. After a New York appeals court upheld his gag order on Thursday, he won't be for a while.
The state's mid-level appellate court denied the Republican former president and current nominee's latest bid to lift the restrictions, swatting away a last-minute argument that he's being unfairly muzzled while Vice-President Kamala Harris, his likely Democratic opponent, pits herself as an ex-prosecutor taking on a "convicted felon."
At the same time, Trump's lawyers are again asking the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, to step aside from the case, saying his daughter's past work as a Democratic political consultant for Harris' 2020 presidential campaign underscores questions about his ability to be impartial.
Merchan rejected the defence's two prior recusal requests, last year and at the start of the trial in April, saying its concerns were "hypothetical" and based on "innuendos" and "unsupported speculation."
In a letter Thursday to Merchan, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said Harris' entry into the presidential race makes those issues "even more concrete" and said the judge has failed to address them "at a level of detail sufficient to repair the lack of public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings."
In its gag order ruling Thursday, a five-judge panel found that Merchan was correct in keeping some restrictions in place until Trump is sentenced because the case is still pending and his conviction doesn't constitute a change in circumstances that would warrant lifting it.
"The fair administration of justice necessarily includes sentencing," they wrote.
