Judge expands gag order after Trump's posts target family members

Judge Juan M. Merchan said Trump's social media attacks warranted expanding the order to Merchan's family.

The judge in Donald Trump's hush money criminal case on Monday declared his daughter off-limits to the former president’s rancor, expanding a gag order days after Trump assailed and made false claims about her on social media.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said his original gag order — barring Trump from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the case — did not include Merchan's family members, but his subsequent attacks warranted including them.

“This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose,” Merchan wrote. “It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings that not only they, but their family members as well, are ‘fair game,’ for Defendant's vitriol."

Merchan's daughter, Loren Merchan, is a Democratic political consultant. Prosecutors had urged Merchan to clarify or expand his gag order after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Loren Merchan “makes money by working to ‘Get Trump,’” and wrongly accused her of posting a social media photo showing him behind bars.

Trump’s lawyers had fought the gag order and its expansion, arguing that Trump was engaging in protected political campaign speech.