Alvin Bragg Demands that Trump Remain Under Gag Order

On Wednesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D-N.Y.) demanded that former President Donald Trump remain under the restrictions of his gag order, even despite the verdict already being reached in his trial.

As the Daily Caller reports, President Trump’s attorney made a request on Tuesday for Judge Juan Merchan to lift the gag order ahead of the former president’s participation in the first presidential debate against Joe Biden, which is set for June 27th.

“Concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump,” said the attorney, arguing that the gag order has become irrelevant now that the trial is over. President Trump is entitled to “unrestrained campaign advocacy” with just five months to go until the November election, as well as the right to fight back against insults and accusations leveled against him by Biden and top witnesses in the trial such as Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.

But prosecutors have since claimed that the gag order goes beyond the trial itself.

“As the People will explain more fully in our written opposition to defendant’s forthcoming motion, these interests have not abated, and the Court has an obligation to protect the integrity of these proceedings and the fair administration of justice at least through the sentencing hearing and the resolution of any post-trial motion,” said prosecutor Matthew Colangelo in a letter to Merchan. Colangelo was previously a top official in the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) before switching to the Manhattan office to be part of the Trump prosecution.

Prosecutors proposed a schedule for lifting the ban that would likely still impact the first debate, asking for a deadline of June 13th for the defense’s motion and a deadline of June 27th for the prosecution to give their final response.

President Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11th, just four days before the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.