NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Donald Trump said he remains muzzled by a gag order after his conviction in his hush money criminal trial. His lawyer said he thinks the gag order was supposed to expire with the verdict and he may seek clarity from the court.
鈥淚鈥檓 under a gag order, nasty gag order," the former president said Friday while speaking to reporters at Trump Tower. Referring to star prosecution witness Michael Cohen, Trump said: 鈥淚鈥檓 not allowed to use his name because of the gag order.鈥
But, despite saying he believes he's still subject to the order banning comments about witnesses and others connected to his case, Trump again lashed out at his former lawyer-turned-courtroom foe.
Without naming Cohen, Trump called him 鈥渁 sleazebag," using the same language that the Manhattan district attorney鈥檚 office flagged before the trial as a possible violation.
鈥淓verybody knows that. Took me a while to find out,鈥 Trump added during a 33-minute speech in which he fumed against the guilty verdict and repeated unfounded claims that his rival, President Joe Biden, had influenced the prosecution.
Trump was convicted Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. She claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier, which he denies. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 11.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said Friday that it was his understanding that the gag order would be lifted when the trial ended with a verdict, because that's how prosecutors framed their request when they sought the restrictions back in February.
But, Blanche said, he thinks Trump is still trying to be careful because it isn't clear to him whether that's actually happened. During the trial, Judge Juan M. Merchan held Trump in contempt of court, fined him $10,000 for violating the gag order and threatened to put him in jail if he did it again.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want President Trump to violate the gag order,鈥 Blanche said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it applies anymore. I feel like the trial is over and it shouldn鈥檛.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit of the theater of the absurd at this point, right? Michael Cohen is no longer a witness in this trial," Blanche added. "The trial is over. The same thing with all the other witnesses. So, we鈥檒l see. I don鈥檛 mean that in any way as being disrespectful of the judge and the process. I just want to be careful and understand when it no longer applies.鈥
In a statement, a spokesperson for the state court system said: "The order is part of the court record that has been made publicly available and it speaks for itself.鈥 The statement didn鈥檛 say what part of the order it meant, though in issuing the order, Merchan noted that prosecutors had sought the restrictions 鈥渇or the duration of the trial.鈥
A message seeking comment was left for the Manhattan DA鈥檚 office.
Merchan imposed the gag order on March 26, a few weeks before the start of the trial, after prosecutors raised concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee鈥檚 propensity to attack people involved in his cases. It barred him from publicly commenting about witnesses, jurors and others connected to his hush money case.
Merchan later to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump , a Democratic political consultant, and raised false claims about her.
Trump鈥檚 use of the term 鈥渟leazebag鈥 to describe Cohen just before the trial rankled prosecutors, but was not considered a gag order violation by the judge. Merchan declined to sanction Trump for an April 10 social media post, which referred to Cohen and Daniels, another key prosecution witness, by that insult.
The judge said at the time that Trump鈥檚 contention that he was responding to previous posts by Cohen that were critical of him 鈥渋s sufficient to give鈥 him pause as to whether prosecutors met their burden in demonstrating that the post was out of bounds.
A state appeals court this month rejected Trump鈥檚 request to lift some or all of the gag order during the trial, finding that Merchan properly determined Trump鈥檚 public statements 鈥減osed a significant threat to the integrity of the testimony of witnesses and potential witnesses.鈥
The state鈥檚 mid-level appeals court ruled that 鈥淢erchan properly weighed鈥 Trump鈥檚 free speech rights against the 鈥渉istorical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases, and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal proceedings from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment, and harm.鈥
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Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
