A New York appeals court judge Tuesday denied Donald Trump's bid to halt his hush money trial while he appeals a gag order, a ruling that came less than 24 hours after another judge rejected the former president's request to delay his impending criminal trial on other grounds.
Tuesday's ruling came roughly one hour after Trump attorney Emil Bove argued that his client is entitled to a stay of the proceedings while he challenges the "unconstitutional" partial gag order Judge Juan Merchan handed down against Trump last month and expanded days later.
Bove contended the gag order — which prohibits Trump from bashing witnesses, individual prosecutors, court staff and their relatives, the judge's relatives, and jurors and potential jurors — means his client can't comment on publicly filed motions and that it violates the former president's Sixth and First Amendment rights.
His court filing contended the order is causing "ongoing, irreparable harm to Petitioner and the voting public."
"He is the leading candidate in a presidential election and this record does not support the gag order," Bove told Justice Cynthia Kern.
Steven Wu of the Manhattan district attorney's office, which brought the case against Trump, told the judge that there's no basis for a stay and that Bove was misrepresenting the gag order.
"Defense counsel has presented this as high-minded," Wu said, "but we are talking about inflammatory and denigrating remarks about witnesses and family members of court staff. This is not political debate. These are threats against staff that have led to a barrage of attacks that have led to the NYPD becoming involved."
Kern’s order allows Trump’s attorneys to make their case for a stay to a full panel of Appellate Division judges. His court filings for that request are due Monday morning — the same time jury selection is scheduled to begin in the case.
One of Kern’s Appellate Division colleagues, Justice Lizbeth González, took about two hours Monday to deny Trump’s motion to halt the trial while he pushes forward with an appeal on his argument that he can’t get a fair trial in Manhattan.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to an adult film star in the closing days of the 2016 presidential election. He's pleaded not guilty.
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