New York's top court upholds Trump gag order in hush money case

By Luc Cohen

(Reuters) - New York's top court on Thursday upheld a judge's gag order on Donald Trump in the case in which the former U.S. president was convicted on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star. 

Trump, the Republican nominee in the Nov. 5 presidential election, had argued that Justice Juan Merchan's restrictions on his ability to speak publicly about court staff and individual prosecutors violated his right to free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The New York state Court of Appeals did not agree. The court said on Thursday it was dismissing Trump's appeal because "no substantial constitutional question is directly involved." 

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, said Trump would "continue to fight against the unconstitutional Witch Hunts and Gag Orders."

Trump also faces a gag order in an unrelated federal criminal case in Washington, D.C. over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

A mid-level state appeals court had rejected Trump's challenge to Merchan's gag order in August, calling the restrictions "narrowly-tailored." 

Merchan imposed the gag order a few weeks before the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president began on April 22. The judge said Trump's history of making threatening statements could undermine the proceedings.

Merchan's original order prevented Trump from commenting on prosecutors, court staff, witnesses and jurors. 

He lifted the restrictions on witnesses and jurors following Trump's May 30 conviction. A separate order prevents Trump or others involved in the case from identifying the jurors, who served anonymously.

Jurors found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for covering up former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

The payment was made in exchange for Daniels' silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump a decade earlier, which Trump denied. Trump won the presidency by defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Deepa Babington)