Former US President Donald Trump leaves the courthouse after a jury found him guilty of all 34 crimes in his criminal trial at the New York State Supreme Court in New York on May 30, 2024.
Justin Lane | Via Reuters
New York’s highest court on Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s appeal against the silence order in his criminal hush money trial.
The New York Court of Appeals in a short decision declined to hear Trump’s offer “on the grounds that there is no substantial constitutional issue.”
The decision means that Trump’s silence order, which bars him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and other parties involved in the Manhattan Supreme Court case, remains in effect.
Trump’s lawyers also asked Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, to end the silence order because the trial is over.
However, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has urged Merchan to keep the restrictions in place at least until after a sentencing hearing takes place and certain post-trial motions are resolved.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that the former president and his legal team “will continue to fight the unconstitutional Gag Order imposed by Judge Merchan.”
The order “unfairly silences” Trump “at the height of his campaign,” Cheung said, adding that voters have “a fundamental right to hear his message.”
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche and a spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney declined to comment.
Trump was found guilty last month of 34 felonies for falsifying company records as part of a scheme to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee will be sentenced on July 11, just four days before his party holds its nominating convention.
The crime of falsifying corporate records carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison in New York, although Merchan could hand down a sentence that spares Trump any time behind bars.
