Judge Bars Trump From Disclosing NYC Criminal Case Evidence

Former President Donald Trump is barred by a New York Judge from disclosing any evidence or information he and his legal team will learn about in the discovery phase of his criminal case in New York City.

Forbes reported that State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan issued a protective order Monday that does not allow the former president from publicly disclosing any evidence or information prosecutors have gathered against him, especially on his own social media platform of Truth Social, and orders that he can only view the evidence in the presence of his legal team.

“Any materials and information provided by the People to the defense in accordance with their discovery obligations as well as any other documents, materials, or correspondence provided to or exchanged with defense counsel of record on the [case]… shall be used solely for the purposes of preparing a defense in this matter,” the order said. “It is further ordered that any person who receives the covered materials shall not copy, disseminate, or disclose the covered materials, in any form or by any means, to any third party… or posting the Covered Materials to any news or social media platforms, including, but not limited, to Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, or YouTube, without prior approval from the court.”

Merchan is also allowing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his office to redact the names of staffers until jury selection begins in the case.

Trump was indicted by Bragg and a Manhattan grand jury last month on 34 counts of falsifying business documents regarding a 2016 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair the pair had years earlier, the report said.

According to the report, the charge, which is usually treated as a misdemeanor, was elevated to felony counts in this case because Trump was running for president at the time of the deception, gaining political benefit against federal election laws, despite the U.S. Department of Justice refusing to prosecute the case.

The report said that Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCraw asked Merchan two weeks ago to restrict Trump’s access to the evidence his side would get during the discovery phase of the case.

“[Trump has a] longstanding and perhaps singular history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, trial jurors, grand jurors, judges and others involved in legal proceedings against him,” Forbes reported her telling Merchan during past hearings on April 28 and May 4.