Global Courant 2023-04-26 05:47:31
NEW YORK (AP) — New York prosecutors have asked a judge to bar Donald Trump from using evidence from his criminal case to attack witnesses, citing what they say the former president used “intimidating, embarrassing and threatening” actions in the past. statements” about people. he is involved in legal disputes.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office filed court documents on Monday asking Judge Juan Manuel Merchan for a protection order that would place strict guardrails around Trump’s access to and use of evidence obtained by prosecutors prior to trial. has been transferred. That kind of sharing of evidence, called discovery, is routine in criminal cases and is intended to help ensure a fair trial.
Prosecutors want to prevent Trump from posting evidence on social media or providing it to third parties. They also want to restrict how he looks at certain sensitive material, asking him to do so only in front of his lawyers — and that he not copy, photograph or transcribe those documents.
Trump “has a long and perhaps particular history of assaulting witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, trial jurors, grand jurors, judges and others involved in legal proceedings against him,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw.
That behavior, she said, has “posed a significant security risk to those individuals and their families.”
Merchan did not immediately rule on the prosecution’s request. McCaw asked him in her filing to schedule a hearing on the case next week.
E-mail messages requesting comment were left with Trump’s lawyers.
Prosecutors first raised concerns that Trump might weaponize the discovery process during his April 4 indictment on charges that he falsified records at his company as part of a broader 2016 plan to make secret hush money payments to cover allegations of extramarital affairs. bury sexual encounters. Trump has denied wrongdoing — or having extramarital affairs — and pleaded not guilty.
While Trump sat at the defense table a stone’s throw from her, McCaw told Merchan that a protective order was needed to “ensure the sanctity of the proceedings and the inviolability of the discovery material.”
At the time, McCaw said prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers were close to a joint agreement with many of the restrictions prosecutors are now asking Merchan to impose. Negotiations later broke down, leading prosecutors to seek the intervention of the judge.
