New York’s highest court rejected former President Trump's appeal to remove the gag order by the Democrat judge overseeing his so-called hush money case.
On Sept. 12, the New York Court of Appeals, upheld the decision by a lower court to keep his gag order in place last month, after he was was convicted by a Manhattan jury.
The court dismissed Trump's appeal on the grounds "that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved," which continues to bar him from talking about prosecutors, court staff, and others involved in the case until after his sentencing.
Two of the judges on the state appeals court, Chief Judge Rowan Wilson and Judge Caitlin Halligan, took no part in the latest decision after they recused themselves, but did not offer an explanation why.
All seven of the judges on the panel were appointed by Democrat governors.
Trump was convicted on 34 counts in May of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment that his former attorney Michael Cohen made to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Cohen testified that he was allegedly ordered by Trump to silence Daniel's claims of an affair with the former president during the 2016 presidential election.
Judge Juan Merchan, who had presided over his trial, placed the gag order against Trump in March after he publicly attacked key witnesses like Cohen, the prosecution, and jurors whom he suspected of bias.
Prosecutors maintained that gag restrictions were needed to protect all parties involved in the trial from Trump's "harmful" comments to his supporters.
The judge later ruled that the former president violated the gag order ten times, with a fine of up to $1,000 per violation and threatened imprisonment if he persisted.
The former president countered that the Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, along with Merchan and his daughter, were fair game.
Merchan's daughter was attacked by Trump for allegedly having undue influence on her father through her work with high-level Democrats.
The judge partially eased the gag order against the former president in June after his conviction and freed Trump to make comments about witnesses and the judge himself, but the ban against mentioning his daughter remains in place.
The 45th president said that the gag order violated his First Amendment rights and that of his millions of supporters, by interfering with his ability to express himself as a presidential candidate.
Trump's attorneys argued that Bragg "violated the presidential immunity doctrine by using similar official-acts evidence in the grand jury proceedings that gave rise to the politically motivated charges in this case."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office but not for unofficial acts.
The ruling meant that Trump was immune from criminal prosecution for "official acts," but lower courts were allowed to determine the exact line between official and unofficial acts.
Merchan delayed Trump's sentencing for a second time from Sept. 18 to Nov. 26, after claiming that he wanted to avoid any accusations of interference with the 2024 election.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung released a statement, calling the gag order unconstitutional and said that the former president would “continue to fight against” it.
“The Democrats are trying to unlawfully gag President Trump, the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election, because they know that he is dominating this election, will win on November 5th, and will Make America Great Again!” said Cheung.
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