Prosecutors have filed a motion against former President Donald Trump, seeking to hold him in contempt for violating his gag order with recent attacks on potential witnesses, Politico reported Tuesday.
The motion highlights Trump's posts about potential star witness Michael Cohen. In one of his posts on Truth Social, Trump referred to Cohen and a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office as “thugs.” Judge Juan Merchan said he would hold a hearing to consider the prosecutor’s request on April 24.
The motion notes that the April 1 gag order imposed on Trump prohibits him from "[m]aking or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding".
Prosecutors working under Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argue that Trump clearly violated those terms when he attacked not just Cohen, his former personal attorney, but Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who alleges that she had an affair with the former president.
The contempt motion notes that the ban on such attacks is part of "lawful order expressing an unequivocal mandate," which Trump expressly violated.
The prosecutors are seeking $1,000, the maximum financial sanction, for each post that violates the gag order.
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