Top court declines to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of gag order in hush money case

New York’s highest court dismissed Donald Trump’s gag order appeal, as the ex-president continued his campaign, slamming ‘lost’ Joe Biden.

New York’s highest court has declined to hear Donald Trump’s gag order appeal, leaving the restrictions in place, as they were, following his felony conviction last month.

Mr Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in an attempt to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence just days before the 2016 US election.

New York’s Court of Appeals said it will not hear the case because “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved” that would necessitate an immediate intervention.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office urged the Court of Appeals to reject Mr Trump’s appeal.

Former US President Donald Trump campaigning in Detroit, Michigan. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

The decision is the latest legal setback for the former president of the United States, who, during his historic criminal trial repeatedly railed against the gag order which prohibits him from commenting on the jury, witnesses, and other people connected to the case.

Mr Trump’s lawyers had filed a notice of appeal with New York’s high court on 15 May during the trial, arguing that the gag order restricted Mr Trump’s “core political speech on matters of central importance at the height of his Presidential campaign.”

Judge Merchan imposed the gag order on March 26 and during the trial held Mr Trump in contempt of court and fined him US$10,000 for violating the gag order.

The ex-president had made it a daily habit of speaking to the press and posting on social media about the trial, venting his low opinion of the “rigged” proceedings.

Judge Merchan threatened to jail Mr Trump if he did it again.

Weeks after the trial, the order remains in effect.

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the "Turning Point: The People's Convention". Picture: AFP

It comes as Mr Trump has continued his campaign for US President.

In a campaign speech in Detroit on Saturday, he took shots at Joe Biden’s mental acuity and proclaimed he had taken a cognitive assessment test - but then incorrectly recalled the name of the doctor who conducted it.

“Doc Ronny Johnson,” said Mr Trump, who turned 78 last Friday. “Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas?” Mr Trump continued. “He said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history, so I liked him very much.”

The doctor was in fact Ronny Jackson.

As part of his attack on what he says is the 81-year-old Biden’s declining mental faculties, Mr Trump told the crowd in that the president had been lost while at the G7 in Italy, turning “to look at trees,” while other world leaders were looking at a parachutist who’d just landed in an aerial display.

US President Joe Biden, appears to wander off during a paratrooper display in Italy for the G7 summit. Picture: Twitter

Mr Biden was in fact looking off-field to where a parachutist was out of frame. Picture: Twitter

The moment Mr Trump referred to is based on a video that has gone viral in right-wing media and Republican circles.

However, the video is misleading because it has been edited, leaving out footage that shows Mr Biden turning away from the other G7 leaders to gesture to a different skydiver who had just landed out of frame.

The White House has criticised Republicans for spreading videos purporting to show President Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline, saying the images had been deceptively cut and manipulated.

“It tells you everything that we need to know about how desperate Republicans are here,” US Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, branding the clips as “cheapfake” videos.

Ms Jean-Pierre said the footage was misleadingly edited, and Biden instead was moving to give a thumbs up to the parachutists.

“This was widely fact checked,” she said at a media briefing, adding “if you run that tape a little bit longer than you’d see ... what was happening.”

US President Joe Biden laughs during a bilateral meeting with Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg of NATO in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, June 17, 2024. Picture: AFP

Earlier in the week NBC posted footage caught by its own cameras from another angle online which showed Mr Biden interacting with the parachutists just a few feet away.

Mr Trump, has made Mr Biden’s advancing age one of his main campaign rallying points, trying to position himself as an energetic alternative - despite being, at 78, just three years younger.

Whoever wins the vote will set a new age record. Mr Biden is already the oldest man to hold the office and would continue to be so, while if Mr Trump wins, he would become the oldest ever at an inauguration.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden seeks to relax immigrant US visa rules as Mr Trump’s campaign is heavily centred on portraying the country as being under assault by what he calls a migrant “invasion.”

Mr Trump has referred to immigrants as “poisoning the blood of the country” and promised mass deportations of those in the country illegally.

-with AFP

Originally published as Top court declines to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of gag order in hush money case