Prosecutor asks judge to sanction Donald Trump for gag order violation in hush money case

Prosecutors
on
Monday
asked
a
New
York
judge
to
sanction

Donald
Trump
for
violating
a
gag
order
by
commenting
on
likely
witnesses
at
the
former
president’s

criminal
hush
money

trial.

The
request
came
as
the
jury
selection
process
began
for
the
first-ever
criminal
trial
of
a
former
U.S.
president.
It
could
take
a
week
or
more
to
finish
selecting
jurors
before
testimony
begins.

“He
is
a
criminal
defendant,
and
like
all
criminal
defendants,
he
is
subject
to
court
supervision,”
assistant
District
Attorney
Chris
Conroy
told
Manhattan
Supreme
Court
Judge
Juan
Merchan
as
Trump
looked
on
in
court.

Conroy
pointed
to
three
recent
social
media
posts
that
referenced
Michael
Cohen,
Trump’s
former
personal
lawyer,
and
Stormy
Daniels,
the
porn
star
whose
receipt
of
a
$130,000
hush
money
payment
from
Cohen
is
at
the
center
of
the
criminal
case.

The
prosecutor
asked
Merchan
to
impose
a
$1,000
sanction
for
each
of
the
three
posts
and
order
Trump
to
take
them
down.

The
prosecutors
also
want
Merchan
to
warn
Trump
that
another
violation
could
result
in
jail
time.

The
judge
said
he
would
hold
a
hearing
on
the
request
on
April
24.

The
first
group
of
potential
jurors
to
enter
the
jury
box
stared
frequently
at
Trump
while
Merchan
explained
the
case
to
them.
Trump
occasionally
glanced
back
at
them.

After
the
trial
adjourned
Monday
afternoon,
Trump
accused
Merchan
of
refusing
to
let
him
skip
court
on
May
17
to
attend
the
high
school
graduation
of
his
youngest
son,
Barron
Trump.

It “looks
like
the
judge
will
not
let
me
go”
to
the
graduation,
Trump
said
outside
the
courtroom.

In
fact,
Merchan
declined
to
rule
on
whether
the
trial
will
be
held
on
that
date.
He
said
it
will
depend
on
how
the
trial
is
going.

Merchan
was
also
asked
to
allow
Trump
to
travel
to
Washington,
D.C.,
next
Thursday
to
hear
his
lawyers
argue
with
federal
prosecutors
before
the
Supreme
Court
as
part
of
another
criminal
case
against
Trump.

Those
oral
arguments
will
center
on
whether
Trump,
as
a
former
president,
is
immune
from
being
charged
with
trying
to
overturn
his
2020
election
loss
to
President

Joe
Biden.

Manhattan
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg’s
office
opposed
the
request
to
let
Trump
go
to
D.C.
Merchan
noted
that
Trump
is
not
required
to
be
at
the
Supreme
Court,
but
he
is
required
by
law
to
attend
the
hush
money
trial,
which
is
expected
to
last
six
weeks
or
more.

Defense
attorney
Todd
Blanche
griped
that
the
trial
of
Trump,
the
presumptive
Republican
presidential
nominee,
should
not
have
been
scheduled
during
the
presidential
election
cycle.
Merchan
shot
back, “You
don’t
think
you
should
be
here
at
all?”

Outside
of
court,
Trump
complained
that
Merchan “thinks
he’s
superior”
to
the
Supreme
Court,
and
once
again
accused
him
of
having
a
conflict
of
interest.

“We’re
not
going
to
be
given
a
fair
trial,”
Trump
claimed
before
departing
the
courthouse.

So
ended
the
first
day
of
Trump’s
first
criminal
trial,
which
might
be
the
only
one
to
come
prior
to
the
Nov.
5
presidential
election.

Trump’s
lawyers
last
week
repeatedly
sought
to
delay
Monday’s
start
date
with
last-ditch
efforts
in
an

appeals
court,
but
those
efforts
failed.

In
all,
defense
attorneys
tried
about
a
dozen
times
to
dismiss
or
delay
the
trial,
but
only
succeeded
in
pushing
it
back
by
a
few

weeks.

Merchan
began
the
proceedings
Monday
by
rejecting
Trump’s
request
that
the
judge
step
off
the
case
due
to
an
alleged
conflict
as
a
result
of
Merchan’s
daughter’s
work
for
a
digital
fundraising
and
advertising
firm
whose
clients
have
included

Vice
President
Kamala
Harris.

The
gag
order
on
Trump,
imposed
last
month,
was
expanded
April
1
after
the
former
president
repeatedly
targeted
the
judge’s
daughter
on
social
media.

Trump
is
charged
with
nearly
three
dozen
counts
of
falsifying
business
records.
Bragg
has
accused
Trump
of
filing
business
records
that
hid
the
true
purpose
of
the
payment
Cohen
made
to
Daniels
shortly
before
the
2016
election.

Cohen,
who
is
expected
to
testify
against
Trump,
said
he
paid
Daniels
in
exchange
for
her
silence
about
an
alleged
sexual
tryst
with
the
then-GOP
nominee
years
earlier.
Trump
has
denied
having
sex
with
Daniels.

Trump
said
several
days
ago
that
he
would
be
willing
to
testify
under
oath.

Trump
is
also
charged
in
three
other
criminal
cases.

Two
of
them
—
one
in
federal
court
in
Washington,
D.C.,
the
other
in
Georgia
state
court
—
are
related
to
his
attempt
to
reverse
his
2020
loss
to
Biden,
which
included
unsuccessfully
pressuring
state
election
officials
and
legislators
to
effectively
nullify
Biden’s
victory
in
several
swing
states.

The
other
criminal
case,
in
federal
court
in
Florida,
is
for
charges
related
to
his
retention
of
classified
government
records
after
he
left
the
White
House,
and
his
alleged
efforts
to
hide
the
records
from
government
officials
when
they
sought
their
return.

Trump
has
pleaded
not
guilty
in
all
of
his
criminal
cases.

Although
Bragg’s
prosecution
of
Trump
was
long
considered
the
least
serious
of
the
cases,
the
New
York
trial
may
ultimately
prove
to
be
the
most
consequential
for
Trump.

As
a
result
of
a
sustained
effort
by
Trump’s
team
to
either
dismiss
his
indictments
or
delay
his
trials,
the
hush
money
case
could
be
the
only
one
that
goes
to
trial
in
the
middle
of
the
2024
presidential
campaign.