Justice gives Trump back some of his freedom of public speech after his trial

Photo: Anna Moneymaker Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Liacouras Center on June 22, 2024 in Philadelphia

France Media Agency

Posted at 7:36 p.m.

• United States

Donald Trump regained his freedom of speech on Tuesday regarding his criminal trial in New York in which he was found guilty at the end of May, a decision which comes two days before the presidential debate against Joe Biden.

Judge Juan Merchan signed, according to a court document, the lifting of most of the restrictions he had imposed on Donald Trump: he was forbidden, under penalty fines, to speak outside the courtroom against prosecution witnesses and jurors during his historic trial from April 15 to May 30.

En However, these limitations continue to apply with regard to the identity and domicile of the jurors who found him guilty.

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Judicial staff as well as the families of prosecutors and the judge also remain protected by these restrictions on speech (“gag order”). But Judge Merchan himself and the New York State prosecutor for the Manhattan jurisdiction, Alvin Bragg, who investigated the whole affair, are not: they were also copiously insulted by Donald Trump or even threatened by anonymous people.

The last restrictions will only be lifted after the sentencing against the ex-president, on July 11, who faces theory a prison sentence.

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“There is ample evidence to justify continued concern for the jurors,” wrote Judge Merchan. And “until the sentence is imposed, [judicial personnel] must continue to exercise justice without feeling threatened, intimidated, harassed or even attacked,” warned the magistrate.

On May 30, the Manhattan criminal jury unanimously found Donald Trump guilty of 34 crimes of falsifying accounting documents to hide the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels just before the presidential election in November 2016.

This payment, the concealment of which was deemed illegal, was intended to buy her silence about a sexual relationship that she claims to have had with Donald Trump – and which the latter denies – in 2006, when he was already married to his marries Melania.

The 78-year-old former Republican president (2017-2021), who aspires to become one again, will face his successor Joe Biden, 81, on Thursday in their first televised debate for the race towards the November 5 vote.