Team Trump Is Very, Very Worried About a Gag Order

Former US President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to speak during a 2024 election campaign rally in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023. - Trump held the rally at the site of the deadly 1993 standoff between an anti-government cult and federal agents. (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump’s inner circle is growing increasingly frantic about the potential impact of a gag order on Trump.

They’re taking to the airwaves to argue Trump should be allowed to fight his case in public, using the kind of vitriolic language he always has against prosecutors and law enforcement officials—before a judge has even had a chance to weigh in on the question.

Legal experts say that it’s likely Trump, who’s scheduled to be arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom on criminal charges at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, will eventually be ordered not to speak about his case. Breaking such an order could potentially land Trump in contempt of court, which could mean jail time.

But judges also often bend over backwards to try to protect a defendant’s First Amendment rights to free speech, and are likely to give Trump plenty of warnings before ordering him not to speak about his criminal case.

A gag order would silence Trump on the subject he’s made the most noise about in the last few weeks: His allegations that he faces unfair persecution from prosecutors. Trump’s team has argued that the criminal case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is actually unifying Republican voters to support him in the GOP primary. Trump’s campaign has raked in $7 million in donations since he was indicted.

Trump’s allies are worried he might have to stop talking about the case altogether.

Trump’s son, Don Jr., railed against a possible gag order in a recent online monologue.

“We’re gonna just charge you with a bunch of nonsense, and then we’re not gonna even let you talk about it to defend yourself in the court of public opinion!,” Don. Jr said. “Seems sort of contrary to everything America stands for!”

Trump’s longtime advisor Roger Stone has also been openly worrying about a gag order in the case.

“Not only do I think the gag order would be unconstitutional,” Stone told Fox News firebrand TV host Tucker Carlson, “it’s election interference.”

Stone was put under a gag order in his own criminal case. Stone was gagged by federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson after one of his social media accounts posted a picture of Jackson next to what looked like crosshairs. Stone apologized profusely and claimed he initially thought the cross was just some kind of “Celtic occult symbol.”

A Trump campaign spokesperson slammed a potential gag order as a “tyrannical, Third World country move.”

In fact, gag orders are a run-of-the-mill feature in criminal cases, especially when a defendant’s statements could be interpreted as threatening prosecutors, influencing witnesses, or tainting the jury pool. And violating a gag order means committing the crime of contempt of a court order—which, in New York, can be punished by up to a year in jail. In Trump’s case, however, he would likely have to violate the order repeatedly before a judge places him in contempt, lawyers said.

“I will be very surprised if the issue of a gag order is not raised and seriously discussed at the arraignment,” said Robert Gottlieb, a former assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which is the prosecutorial office now charging Trump.

“This judge is going to be very concerned about the obvious attempt to influence potential jurors, as well as the incitement to engage in violence,” Gottlieb said. Judge Merchan “will do everything possible to control his courtroom and prevent violence.”