New York [US], March 27: On March 26, judge Juan Merchan banned former US President Donald Trump from making public statements targeting witnesses, court staff, jurors, and prosecutors in the hush money payment trial in New York.
Explaining the above decision, Judge Merchan cited former President Trump 's previous comments about himself and those involved in the hush money trial against adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election year.
Mr. Trump faces 34 charges accusing him of trying to falsify business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Ms. Daniels at the time.
The person who made this payment was Mr. Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump's former lawyer, to prevent Ms. Daniels from speaking publicly before the 2016 election about the suspicion that the two had had sex 10 years earlier. However, Mr. Trump denied the allegations.
Judge Merchan's order also prohibits Mr. Trump from making or directing others to publicly comment on people involved in the trial. However, the ban does not apply to Mr. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney because he is an elected official, nor to the judge himself.
The above decision was made a few hours after former President Trump attacked Judge Merchan and his daughter on the social network Truth Social.
Mr. Trump called the judge "a person who is truly certified to hate Trump, and he is a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome."
According to Mr. Trump, because he hates him, Judge Merchant will not judge the case fairly.
Mr. Merchan is the third judge to issue the above ban during the trial of Mr. Trump.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper