Manhattan prosecutors on Monday asked the judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald J. Trump to prohibit the former president from attacking witnesses or exposing jurors’ identities.
The requests, made in filings by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, noted Mr. Trump’s “longstanding history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, judges, and others involved in legal proceedings against him.”
In outlining a narrowly crafted gag order, the office hewed closely to the terms of a similar order upheld by a federal appeals court in Washington in another of Mr. Trump’s criminal cases.
The gag order in the Manhattan case, if the judge approves it, would bar Mr. Trump from “making or directing others to make” statements about witnesses concerning their role in the case. The district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, also asked that Mr. Trump be barred from commenting on prosecutors on the case — other than Mr. Bragg himself — as well as court staff members.
Mr. Bragg wants the judge, Juan M. Merchan, to protect jurors as well. His prosecutors asked that Mr. Trump be barred from publicly revealing their identities. And although Mr. Trump and his legal team are allowed to know the jurors’ names, Mr. Bragg asked that their addresses be kept secret from the former president.
If Justice Merchan approves the restrictions, he would be just the latest judge to impose a gag order on the former president. There was an order in the Washington case, a federal case that involves accusations that Mr. Trump plotted to overturn the 2020 election. And the judge in Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial that recently concluded ordered Mr. Trump not to comment on court staff members.
The Manhattan criminal case was the first of Mr. Trump’s four indictments to be filed. Last year, the district attorney’s office accused Mr. Trump of 34 felonies, saying he had orchestrated a cover-up of a potential sex scandal with a porn star that could have hindered his 2016 presidential campaign. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 25.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers will most likely oppose the gag order and could appeal it if Justice Merchan adopts it.
The former president has reveled in public attacks on his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who is now one of Mr. Bragg’s key witnesses. Mr. Cohen paid $130,000 in hush money to the porn star to silence her story of an affair with Mr. Trump and was later reimbursed by Mr. Trump.
In its own filing on Monday, Mr. Trump’s defense team asked that the judge prevent Mr. Cohen from testifying.
“Michael Cohen is a liar,” the former president’s lawyers wrote, accusing Mr. Cohen of perjury in Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial and saying that his public statements indicated that he planned to lie again. (The judge in the civil fraud case concluded that Mr. Cohen had been credible and had “told the truth.”)
Mr. Cohen fired back on Monday, saying in a text message, “As the March 25th date draws closer and closer, Donald and his legal team of misfits will attempt to concoct new ways to delay this case.”
