May 23 (UPI) — Former president Donald Trump is appearing remotely Tuesday in a New York City courtroom, where a judge is expected to warn him about sharing evidence related to his 34-count criminal indictment.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchen is expected to caution Trump against sharing any evidence turned over to his legal team during discovery.
The protective order bars Trump from sharing any documents or other evidence not already in the public.
Merchen’s order specifically refers to publicly disclosing “any news on social media platforms, including, but not limited to, Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat or YouTube, without prior approval from the court.”
Prosecutors have worried Trump may try to intimidate or bully witnesses in the case by releasing information. They also have expressed concerns the former president may try to use that evidence to encourage his followers to commit acts of violence.
The case remains in the discovery stage and the trial is expected to start next spring, although Trump’s lawyers have petitioned to have the case tried in federal court.
Earlier this month, Merchen issued an order limiting Trump’s access to only certain documents and some while only in the presence of his lawyers.
Trump’s lawyers are also barred from making copies of any evidence for anyone outside the legal team.
“Donald J. 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, putting those individuals and their families at considerable safety risk,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office wrote in a court filing in April.
Bragg last month unsealed a 34-count indictment against Trump, which was filed in late March.
The 34 felony counts accuse the former president of falsifying records when he paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels hush money during the 2020 election campaign to keep quiet about an alleged affair. Payments were allegedly made through Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
