New York Judge Juan Merchan on Friday told prosecutors to inform Michael Cohen, their primary witness in former President Donald Trump‘s criminal hush money case, to stop talking about the case as Cohen prepares to take the stand next week.
Prosecutors say Trump’s former attorney was also his fixer who made a hush money payment at the center of the indictment. The trial will enter its fifth week of testimony when he takes the stand on Monday, meaning Cohen has had up until now to speak freely about the case while the former president faces a restrictive gag order.
“I will direct [the prosecution] to communicate to Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from any more statements about this case,” Merchan said from the bench.
Both Trump and Cohen have insulted each other for years, but because Trump is barred from publicly remarking about witnesses under the judge’s restrictive gag order, the former president has not been able to respond for weeks.
“It’s becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness, but this witness is allowed to continue to talk,” Trump attorney Todd Blanch told the court after jurors left for the day at around 1 p.m. local time.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued they have repeatedly asked Cohen and other witnesses not to discuss the trial. “We have no control over what they do,” Steinglass said.
In 2016, Cohen made the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had an affair with Trump at a Lake Tahoe resort in 2006, which Trump denies. Cohen also played a role in handling two other hush money deals at Trump’s behest, prosecutors say.
“There is no gag order on Michael Cohen, but what the judge did was amazing, actually, was amazing,” Trump said outside the courtroom.
“Everybody can say whatever they want. They can say whatever they want, but I’m not allowed to say anything about anybody,” Trump said. “It’s a disgrace.”
Cohen has drawn scrutiny in courtrooms before over perjury concerns raised by other judges. And after he posted online that he would refrain from discussing the trial just weeks ago, he was caught profiting from his criticism of his former client in recent TikTok livestreams.
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Trump has pleaded not guilty and told reporters on Friday that the records were not falsified.
Meanwhile, legal experts have said that Cohen could be the prosecution’s strongest witness in their quest to prove that Trump wanted to falsify business records in furtherance of another crime, such as interfering in the 2016 election. Trump is not charged with any additional crime, however, and up to this point in the trial, prosecutors have struggled to show that Trump’s efforts were meant to benefit his campaign.