By Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld - 06/18/24

New York’s top court on Tuesday turned away former President Trump’s challenge to a gag order imposed on his public statements in his hush money criminal case.

The gag order, which remains in effect after being imposed weeks before his trial began, blocks Trump from publicly commenting about jurors, witnesses, court staff or the judge’s family, but it does not bar him from attacking the judge himself or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg .

Bragg’s office contends the restrictions are necessary to protect the integrity of their case, but the former president has argued the gag order violates his First Amendment rights, appealing it all the way to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, after losing in earlier stages.

The court dismissed Trump’s request to toss out the restrictions in a brief order Tuesday, asserting that “no substantial constitutional question” was raised by the appeal.

Last month, a jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records for illegally covering up a hush money payment to a porn actor with the intent to improperly influence the 2016 presidential election, making him the first former U.S. president convicted of criminal charges.

Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the recent trial, imposed the gag order weeks before the trial began and later expanded it to include his and prosecutors’ family members following Trump’s attacks on his daughter, who served as an executive at a progressive political consulting firm.

Throughout the trial, Trump was fined $10,000 — and, threatened with jail — for violating the order by lodging attacks against key witnesses, including his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, and the porn actor, Stormy Daniels.

After the verdict, the former president’s attorneys requested the order be lifted, suggesting that the trial’s conclusion eliminated concerns about the proceeding’s integrity raised by prosecutors and the judge.

That request remains pending with Merchan, and the district attorney’s office has opposed lifting the restrictions at least until after Trump’s sentencing.

Trump has vowed to appeal the verdict, and his sentencing is set for July 11.