Trump asks New York’s high court to intervene in fight over gag order in hush money trial

New York: Donald Trump is seeking to have New York’s highest court intervene in his fight over a gag order that has seen him fined $10,000 and threatened with jail for violating a ban on commenting about witnesses, jurors and others connected to his hush money criminal trial.

The former president’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, a day after the state’s mid-level appellate court refused his request to lift or modify th

restrictions. The filing was listed on a court docket, but the document itself was sealed and not available.

Trump presidential campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said it’s a request for the state’s Court of Appeals to take up the matter.

“President Trump has filed a notice to appeal the unconstitutional and un-American gag order imposed by conflicted Judge Juan

Merchan in the lawless Manhattan DA case,” Cheung said in a statement.

“The threat to throw the 45th President of the United States and the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election in jail for exercising his First Amendment rights is a Third

World authoritarian tactic typical of Crooked Joe Biden and his comrades,” Cheung said.

A five-judge panel of the mid-level appeals court, the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court, ruled Tuesday that Merchan “properly determined” that

Trump’s public statements “posed a significant threat to the integrity of the testimony of witnesses and potential witnesses in this case as well”.

Trump had asked the state’s intermediate appeals court to lift or modify the gag order.

Among other restrictions, it bars him from making or directing others to make statements

about witnesses like his fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen, who will testify for a third day Thursday.

It also prohibits comments about court staff, the judge’s family and prosecutors other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Bragg’s office declined comment. A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for the state court system.

“The gag order has to come off,” Trump told reporters as he headed into court Tuesday. Later, he lamented, “As you know, I’m under a

gag order, so I can’t answer those very simple questions you’re asking me.”

Trump has been noticeably more circumspect in his comments after

Merchan held him in contempt

of court and fined

him a total of $10,000 for

violating the gag order 10 times in recent weeks.

The judge told Trump

last week that future gag order violations could send him to jail.