A former impeachment lawyer for Donald Trump said the ex-president should remain under a gag order while he awaits sentencing in his New York criminal trial.
Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to cover up extramarital affairs ahead of the 2016 election. During the trial, Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump to prevent him from attacking witnesses, jurors, and family members of court staff. At one point, Merchan ruled that Trump had repeatedly violated the order.
After the conviction, prosecutors are seeking to maintain the gag order until the former president is sentenced. In a filing on Friday, they claimed that officials logged 56 “actionable” threats during and after the trial, in addition to hundreds of threatening calls and emails. Trump’s lawyers want the order lifted.
Appearing on Friday’s CNN NewsNight, Robert Ray, who defended Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2020, said his former client should remain under the gag order.
“The case isn’t over until the sentencing is heard and sentence is imposed,” Ray said. “I have absolutely no problem, frankly, with the prosecutors’ real concern about safety. And look, there are wingnuts out there in the period of time between now and when the trial court’s role in this case ends. I don’t think it’s worth taking the chance that anybody could do harm to any of the court personnel, the judge’s staff, most importantly, the judge, and certainly the district attorney and his staff.”
Ray went on to say that the sentencing phase is likely to be an emotionally charged time.
“My view of that is better safe than sorry,” he continued. “And so, any gag order that would help lend itself to calming the temperature here and getting us safely through this proceeding, I think is the right course.”
Watch above via CNN.
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