The Manhattan district attorney's office has asked a judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal case to bar the former president from publicly using evidence, citing a "safety risk."
In a motion filed Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw said Trump had a "longstanding and perhaps singular history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, trial jurors, grand jurors, judges, and others involved in legal proceedings against him, putting those individuals and their families at considerable safety risk."
"The risk that this Defendant will use the Covered Materials inappropriately is substantial," the motion continued. "Defendant has a long history of discussing his legal matters publicly—including by targeting witnesses, jurors, investigators, prosecutors, and judges with harassing, embarrassing, and threatening statements on social media and in other public forums—and he has already done so in this case."
McCaw said the district attorney's office was not seeking a gag order.
"Defendant has a constitutional right to speak publicly about this case, and the People do not seek to infringe upon that right," the document asserted.
McCaw also revealed that Trump's defense team has refused to negotiate and consent to a protective order.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
