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Trump Assails Judge, Daughter After Gag03/28 06:02

   Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a 
gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, making a fallacious 
claim about his daughter and urging him to step aside from the case.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who 
put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, 
making a fallacious claim about his daughter and urging him to step aside from 
the case.

   In a social media post, the former president suggested without evidence that 
Judge Juan M. Merchan was kowtowing to his daughter's interests as a Democratic 
political consultant. He also made a claim -- later repudiated by court 
officials -- that she had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.

   Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, complained on his Truth Social 
platform that the gag order issued Tuesday was "illegal, un-American, 
unConstitutional." He said that Merchan, a veteran Manhattan jurist, was 
"wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out 
against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement" by Democratic rivals.

   Trump claimed that Merchan's daughter, Loren Merchan, whose firm has worked 
on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, had recently posted a 
photo on social media depicting her "obvious goal" of seeing him jailed.

   In a statement, a spokesperson for New York's state court system said that 
claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no 
longer belongs to Loren Merchan. It appears to have been taken over by someone 
else after she deleted it about a year ago, court spokesperson Al Baker said.

   The account on X, formerly known as Twitter, "is not linked to her email 
address, nor has she posted under that screenname since she deleted the 
account. Rather, it represents the reconstitution, last April, and manipulation 
of an account she long ago abandoned," Baker said.

   Messages seeking comment were left for Loren Merchan and Trump's campaign.

   Trump did not link to the purported photo, but an X account under the name 
"LM" showed a photo illustration of an imprisoned Trump as its profile picture 
Wednesday morning. It was later changed to an image of Vice President Kamala 
Harris as a child.

   Loren Merchan's consulting firm had linked to that account in its social 
media posts in past years, but it is now private with no posts displayed and 
states that it joined the platform in April 2023, after Baker said she deleted 
it. Usernames on X can be taken over by other users after they're deleted.

   The gag order, which prosecutors had requested, bars Trump from either 
making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about 
jurors and potential witnesses in the hush-money trial, such as his lawyer 
turned nemesis Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels. It also prohibits 
any statements meant to interfere with or harass the court's staff, prosecution 
team or their families.

   It does not bar comments about Merchan or his family, nor does it prohibit 
criticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat 
whose office is prosecuting Trump.

   Trump's post insinuating that Loren Merchan had posted the photo came after 
conservative commentator Laura Loomer posted a story online Tuesday claiming to 
have unearthed her X account.

   "So, let me get this straight," Trump wrote on Truth Social, "the Judge's 
daughter is allowed to post pictures of her 'dream' of putting me in jail ... 
but I am not allowed to talk about the attacks against me, and the Lunatics 
trying to destroy my life and prevent me from winning the 2024 Presidential 
Election, which I am dominating?"

   Bragg's office declined to comment.

   Trump's three-part Truth Social post was his first reaction to the gag 
order. His focus on Merchan's daughter echoed his lawyers' arguments last year 
when they urged the judge to exit the case. The judge had also made several 
small donations totaling $35 to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, 
including $15 to Biden.

   Merchan said then that a state court ethics panel found that Loren Merchan's 
work had no bearing on his impartiality. The judge said in a ruling last 
September that he was certain of his "ability to be fair and impartial" and 
that Trump's lawyers had "failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete, or 
even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on 
these grounds."

   In a recent interview, Merchan told The Associated Press that he and his 
staff were working diligently to prepare for the historic first trial of a 
former president.

   "There's no agenda here," Merchan said. "We want to follow the law. We want 
justice to be done."

   Trump's hush-money case, set to be the first of his four criminal cases to 
go to trial, centers on allegations that he falsely logged payments to Cohen as 
legal fees in his company's books when they were for Cohen's work during the 
2016 campaign covering up negative stories about Trump. That included $130,000 
Cohen paid Daniels on Trump's behalf so she wouldn't publicize her claim of a 
sexual encounter with him years earlier.

   Trump pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business 
records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, though there is no 
guarantee that a conviction would result in jail time. He denies having sex 
with Daniels and his lawyers have said that the payments to Cohen were 
legitimate legal expenses, not part of any coverup.

   In issuing the gag order, Merchan cited Trump's history of "threatening, 
inflammatory, denigrating" remarks about people involved in his legal cases. A 
violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even 
jailed.

   Though not covered by the restrictions, Merchan referenced Trump's various 
comments about him as an example of his rhetoric. The gag order mirrors one 
imposed and largely upheld by a federal appeals court panel in Trump's 
Washington, D.C., election interference criminal case.

   Trump's lawyers fought a gag order, warning it would amount to 
unconstitutional and unlawful prior restraint on his free speech rights.

   Merchan had long resisted imposing one, recognizing Trump's "special" status 
as a former president and current candidate and not wanting to trample his 
ability to defend himself publicly.

   But, he said, as the trial nears, he found that his obligation to ensuring 
the integrity of the case outweighs First Amendment concerns. He said Trump's 
statements have induced fear and necessitated added security measures to 
protect his targets and investigate threats.

 
 
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