Former President Donald Trump speaks as he arrives at Manhattan criminal court with his legal team ahead of the start of jury selection in New York, Monday, April 15, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP)
Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial, instructed jurors ahead of the weekend not to discuss or to research anything relating to the former president’s case.
Merchan said opening arguments will be delivered by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team and Trump defense attorneys.
Court sketch showing Former President Donald Trump in Manhattan Criminal Court before Justice Juan Merchan, Monday, April 15, 2024. Trump is facing charges stemming from so-called "hush money" payments made to adult film actress, Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 Presidential election. (Christine Cornell)
Merchan ordered that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses concerning their potential participation or about counsel in the case — other than Bragg — or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.
Merchan also ordered that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about any prospective juror or chosen juror.
Bragg has argued in the first week of the trial that Trump has violated his gag order more than seven times, and wants him to pay a $1,000 fine. Bragg, in his motion, urged the judge to warn the former president that another violation could be punishable by up to 30 days incarceration.
Trump and his defense attorneys have argued that the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee should not be bound by the gag order, and said it violates his First Amendment rights, as well as the First Amendment rights of his supporters.
The judge is expected to rule on whether Trump actually violated the order by early next week.
Judge Juan Merchan poses for a picture in his chambers, Thursday, March 14, 2024, in New York. A dozen Manhattan residents are soon to become the first Americans ever to sit in judgment of a former president charged with a crime. Jury selection is set to start Monday in former President Donald Trump's hush-money trial. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (AP Photos)
"The whole thing is a mess," he said.
Trump has blasted the case as election interference and has said Democrats and allies of President Biden, his 2024 opponent, want to keep him off the campaign trail.
Trump, though, held a campaign event in Upper Manhattan Tuesday evening at a Harlem bodega. He highlighted crime in New York City and said he would work with Democratic lawmakers in the city to fix the city’s issues, should he be elected.
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Trump was greeted at that bodega by a massive crowd of supporters chanting "four more years."
The former president said that he thinks being confined to the courtroom will have a "reverse effect" to what he said the Democrats are hoping for, and feels it will energize his base and new voters ahead of the 2024 election.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
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