'It's going to survive': Legal expert tells Trump appealing gag order is waste of time

Delay isn't an option when it comes to Donald Trump's defense in the upcoming criminal hush money case, an expert warned Tuesday.

The former president's oft-used courtroom delay tactic, which has been successful in other jurisdictions, likely won't work in the Big Apple, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said on CNN.

The legal analyst warned that the gag order imposed on Trump is going to stick and, even if he tries to appeal it, he expects the trial's scheduled date of April 15 won't move.

"One important point on the appeal — if Donald Trump tries to appeal this gag order he will lose," said Honig during an appearance on CNN's AC 360. "It will not delay the start of this trial."

Trump is facing charges that he fudged business records at the Trump Organization to approve payments to adult movie star Stormy Daniels to prevent damaging details of an alleged affair leaking weeks before the 2016 election.

His former fixer and attorney Michael Cohen, who will be called as a witness in the case, filed the payments as legal services, the charges claim.

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Trump has pleaded not guilty.

New York Judge Juan Merchan issued a gag order to preemptively stop Trump from discussing and possibly denigrating witnesses, court workers and jurors, and cited his behavior in previous legal cases as a reason to put it in place.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the judge's move as "unconstitutional" and added that it prevents Trump from "engaging in core political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment."

Honig's confident that any appeal effort on Trump's behalf won't win out, saying, "I think it's going to survive if he appeals, I think it's absolutely going to survive because what this gag order protects is the jurors, the witnesses, and the staff — they are the most vulnerable people."

"They're the people who need to be protected; they are off-limits, [while] everybody else, he's free to talk about."

Watch the video below or at this link.