The D.C. Swamp will do anything to stop Trump from getting back into the White House. But now they’ve taken it too far.
And Trump was hit with a devastating gag order that completely changes the 2024 race.
Donald Trump’s criminal prosecutions could be discussed in the presidential debate next week, but unusual court orders have limited how the former president can address them.
Trump, the probable Republican nominee, will debate on June 27, one month after being convicted by a New York jury of falsifying corporate records and while facing three criminal charges in other jurisdictions.
While his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, relies on messaging that portrays Trump as a convicted felon and spends $50 million on campaign ads promoting it in the days leading up to the debate, Trump is barred from attacking some of the key characters in his New York case and witnesses in other cases.
Dan Epstein, a constitutional law professor at St. Thomas University, told the Washington Examiner that when Trump enters the debate stage while under gag restrictions and bail agreements, he will be entering unknown terrain.
Normally, he argued, gag orders are legal when properly crafted to balance First Amendment rights.
“What makes the issue in the Trump prosecutions challenging is that he’s a political candidate engaged in political speech. It’s untested waters jurisprudentially,” Epstein said.
A gag order ordered by Judge Juan Merchan in the hush money case will prevent Trump from expressing his worries about one of the primary prosecutors and the judge’s daughter during the debate, both of whom Trump has said have conflicts of interest in the case.
Matthew Colangelo, who played a key role in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s conviction of Trump last month, had served in the Biden Department of Justice before Bragg, an elected Democrat, engaged him to assist with the hush money case in December 2022.
In March, Trump informed reporters that Colangelo was a “Biden DOJ guy.”
“Why is he in the Manhattan DA’s office trying the case? That in itself is a conflict. He’s in the Manhattan DA’s office trying the case. I mean, that’s called a conflict,” Trump said.
Merchan quickly imposed a gag order in March at the request of prosecutors, prohibiting Trump from speaking openly about Colangelo and others whom Trump has publicly insulted, claiming concerns for Colangelo’s safety.
After Trump criticized the judge’s daughter in online writings, Merchan amended the order to include prosecutors’ family members and court workers.
However, Trump had legitimate worries about Loren Merchan, which he also expressed in court documents.
The former president will be unable to discuss these moves during the debate.
It seems highly likely that the Biden camp will do everything in their power to push the envelope to get Trump to comment on the trial.
It’s a lose-lose proposition for Trump. He either doesn’t respond and, therefore, looks weak.
Or he responds and puts himself deeper into trouble with the legal system.
Can you see why many Americans think this was all part of the plan to begin with?
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
