Judge-issued gag order would block Trump for his favorite legal comms strategy – social media

The New York judge presiding over President Trump's hush money case has not issue a so-called "gag order," forbidding the former president from publicly discussing the case, but the judge could issue such an order Tuesday when Trump is arraigned in a Manhattan courthouse on the related charges.

The indictment for the charges against Trump is sealed, which means its content is not open to the public. Whether the judge unseals the indictment will likely be a key factor in whether he allows Trump to talk about the charges, which would stop the former president from using social media to continue to say the case is a political witch hunt led by District Attorney
Alvin Bragg.

The order would also stop Trump from talking about the matter when he returns Tuesday night to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

NBC News reports Trump has already called Bragg an "animal" in one social media post. And in another, since deleted, Trump appeared to post an article in which Bragg's head was displayed on an image with Trump holding a baseball bat. 

Judge Juan Merchan is expected to preside over Trump's case.

The case appears to center on whether Trump broke the law in transactions to pay adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to remain silent about an alleged affair, in which the former president has denied being involved.

"I think it's not only a possibility, but it's extremely likely that there will be a gag order in the case," attorney Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor, told the Insider news outlet. "Gag orders are very common in criminal cases, particularly in cases where there is an enormous amount of pretrial publicity like this one."