Trump lawyers raise hell to try to stop gag order in hush money case

Former President Donald Trump's attorneys are trying to stop a gag order in the New York criminal case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

According to ABC News, "With jury selection scheduled to begin in Donald Trump's New York hush money trial in three weeks, the former president's defense lawyers have asked Judge Juan Merchan to deny prosecutors' recent request for a limited gag order, arguing the former president should be permitted to fully respond to attacks by his political opponents."

"American voters have the First Amendment right to hear President Trump's uncensored voice on all issues that relate to this case," wrote Trump's defense lawyer Todd Blanche. "President Trump's political opponents have, and will continue to, attack him based on this case. The voters have the right to listen to President Trump's unfettered responses to those attacks -- not just one side of that debate."

Bragg, for his part, warned that Trump's unfettered comments about the case, and the potential for harassment by his supporters, poses a "significant and imminent threat to the orderly administration of this criminal proceeding."

After Bragg sought the gag order last week, noted the report, "defense lawyers described the gag order as a 'heckler's veto' which fails to identify or substantiate which third parties might engage in threats or harassment. They also argued that Trump has complied with past gag orders, as well as the protective order imposed by Merchan in this criminal case."

Trump was fined on two separate occasions for violating gag orders in his legal disputes over the last year.

The Manhattan case is likely to be the first of Trump's four criminal cases to go to trial. Bragg alleges that Trump falsified business records to conceal a hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, to conceal an affair between the two of them and block voters from learning about electorally important information in the 2016 contest.

The case got a boost following news that Trump's CFO Allen Weisselberg, who might have been a key witness in his defense, pleaded guilty to perjury.