Donald Trump May Have Already Violated Expanded Gag Order

Donald Trump may have violated the gag order in his hush-money criminal trial after the judge expanded it to declare his family off-limits, a former federal prosecutor said.

Ron Filipkowski, a former prosecutor and the editor-in-chief of the liberal outlet MeidasTouch, wrote on social media Tuesday that Trump had violated the order by sharing a clip from Fox News on his Truth Social platform.

"Trump violates his gag order this morning by posting a clip of Brian Kilmeade repeating the same fake story about a fake social media account supposedly from the judge's daughter that led to the gag order being extended," Filipkowski wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan expanded the week-old gag order Monday evening to include prohibitions on Trump making statements about his family and that of the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who requested the move on March 29.

Last week, Trump posted twice on social media denouncing the judge's daughter, Loren Merchan, who was the president and partner of Authentic Campaigns, a progressive political consulting firm, according to a June 2022 wedding announcement in Politico.

A violation of the gag order could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.

Newsweek has contacted a Trump spokesperson and Bragg's office for comment via email.

Later this month, the hush-money case is set to be the first of Trump's four criminal cases to go to trial.

It centers on allegations that Trump falsely logged payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen as legal fees when they were for Cohen's work covering up allegations of extramarital sexual encounters during Trump's 2016 election campaign. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, and denies all wrongdoing.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Juan Merchan's daughter, including falsely claiming she had recently posted a photo on social media of him behind bars. A court spokesperson has said the account on X that Trump was referring to no longer belongs to Loren Merchan and appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it last year.

Monday's revised gag order still leaves Trump free to criticize Juan Merchan and Bragg, an elected Democrat, who is leading the prosecution in the hush-money case.

"This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose," Juan Merchan wrote in the revised order.

"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," he continued.

The judge added that "the average observer must now, after hearing Defendant's recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves, but for their loved ones as well. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the Rule of Law itself."

In the request to expand the gag order, Bragg's office argued that Trump's "claim of a constitutional right to levy personal attacks on family members is as disturbing as it is wrong."

The filing also said: "This issue is not complicated. Family members of trial participants must be strictly off-limits. Defendant's insistence to the contrary bespeaks a dangerous sense of entitlement to instigate fear and even physical harm to the loved ones of those he sees in the courtroom."

Update 4/2/24, 10:50 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Correction 4/2/24 10:50 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Ron Filipkowski.