The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Tuesday sought to limit Donald J. Trump’s access to certain material from his criminal case, urging a judge to bar him from reviewing the material without his lawyers present. The request, filed with the court on Tuesday, also seeks to prohibit Mr.
Trump from publicizing the prosecution’s evidence on social media or through other channels. When 34 felony charges were unsealed against Mr. Trump earlier this month, prosecutors working for the district attorney, Alvin L.
Bragg, said they were working with the former president’s lawyers to come to an agreement as to how some case material — personal information of witnesses and evidence, including grand jury testimony — could be used. But the opposing sides could not reach an agreement, and the prosecution’s request is now expected to be opposed by Mr. Trump’s lawyers.
Ultimately it will fall to the judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, to determine whether to limit Mr. Trump’s access and public comments in any way.
While the prosecution is not seeking a gag order to prevent Mr. Trump from discussing the case at all — a measure Justice Merchan said he would be unwilling to grant at this stage — its request could restrain Mr. Trump’s ability to use the material for political purposes.
The filing, submitted by an assistant district attorney, Catherine McCaw, represents an early salvo in what is expected to be a heated and protracted legal battle between the two sides over a host of issues in the coming months as the case moves toward a trial. Susan R. Necheles, a lawyer for Mr.
Trump, declined to comment. Mr. Bragg has accused the former president of orchestrating the cover-up of a $130,000 hush-money payment made to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who agreed to keep quiet about her story of a sexual encounter with Mr.
Trump. The payment was made by Mr. Trump’s former fixer, Michael D.
Cohen, who is expected to become a crucial witness for prosecutors at trial. A trial is not expected until next year. In her request to the judge, Ms.
McCaw cited Mr. Trump’s well-known propensity to use social media and public appearances to attack those investigating him. She noted that he had already begun to do so, slinging invective at those involved in the Manhattan case, including Mr.
Bragg, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Daniels and Justice Merchan himself.
That pattern of attacks, she wrote, is particularly concerning given that Mr. Trump faces a separate federal investigation into his handling of sensitive documents. The fact that Mr.
Trump “is currently under federal investigation for his handling of classified materials, gives rise to significant concern that defendant will similarly misuse grand jury and other sensitive materials here,” Ms. McCaw wrote. She requested that Mr.
Trump — or anyone else who received the case materials — be blocked from disseminating them to news or social media platforms. And she said that there was a smaller subset of materials that should be kept in the “exclusive control” of his lawyers. Mr.
Trump should be barred from reviewing that material without his lawyers present, Ms. McCaw said. She did not elaborate on what that material was expected to include.
The district attorney’s office also requested that the names of employees identified in case material — with the exception of the prosecutors and investigators working on the case — be redacted from documents. Ms. McCaw wrote that those names would include the office’s paralegals, often young people who recently graduated from college.
“While lawyers and sworn members of law enforcement who work for the office must do their work in public, there is no corresponding need for its support staff to be identified to the world and potentially subject to defendant’s attacks,” she wrote. Sean Piccoli contributed reporting. .
From: nytimes
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/nyregion/trump-bragg-gag-order.html
