Donald Trump's allies are doing his dirty work while tiptoeing around his gag order
Donald Trump was warned not to attack prosecutors or witnesses again.
Now, his allies are doing it.
At his hush-money trial, surrogates have gone on the attack, toeing the line of Trump's gag order.
Donald Trump has been testing the limits of his gag order in his hush-money trial — with 10 violations culminating in a warning from the judge that he could be jailed.
But while the former president has been uncharacteristically restrained recently, a cast of Republican lawmakers and Trump surrogates have traveled to court to rail about the proceedings.
US Senators and even the Speaker of the House trashed the Manhattan trial just as prosecutors called their key witness, Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen.
It's raised questions about whether these "surrogates" could be violating Trump's gag order.
Legal experts told Business Insider it hinges on whether Trump is directing them to speak. They warned that extending a gag to uninvolved parties could raise free-speech concerns.
For now, Trump's pals appear free to attack the trial — as long as Trump isn't telling them to.
Trump's allies rally to his side
Trump's fleet of surrogates has included House Speaker Mike Johnson, Sens. JD Vance of Ohio and Rick Scott of Florida, and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Some of the guests, including Vance and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, have made TV appearances on behalf of the Trump campaign — further blurring the line between supporter and spokesperson.
They've blasted witnesses and Judge Juan Merchan's daughter; Trump said the surrogates have been "speaking very beautifully."
Andrew Rice, a New York Magazine features writer, said on MSNBC that he'd seen Trump in court "annotating and editing" the comments his surrogates were set to deliver.
A Trump campaign official told Business Insider that all supporters have volunteered to come and support their friend and none were invited by the campaign.
Some have been transparent about their intent. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who has been floated as a potential pick for vice president, told Newsmax that one reason he attended was to "overcome this gag order."
Tuberville's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said on Thursday that a group of Republicans from the far-right House Freedom Caucus were in Manhattan to "stand with" Trump. She then tore into Cohen, Trump's former attorney.
"He wants President Trump to suffer; that is why he has done what he has done," Boebert told reporters in a press conference held in a park near the courthouse. "That is why he has told the lies that he has, and we are here today to counter those as we stand for our friend President Donald J. Trump."
Under the gag order, Trump is not allowed to comment about Cohen.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida later emphasized that the group was "here on our volition because there are things we can say that President Trump is unjustly not allowed to say."
Trump is walking a fine line
Andrew Lieb, an attorney and legal analyst, said it's a "close call" whether Trump's surrogates could cause him further legal trouble given the fine line between whether he's directing them or merely endorsing the support.
"Contempt of the gag order is no slam dunk because contempt requires the judge to find that Trump is the one directing his surrogates," Lieb said, though he warned: "Eventually, he is going to learn that if you keep touching the fire, you ultimately get burned."
If Trump's supporters suggest they were recruited to act on his behalf, "the court could hold a hearing to see if Trump was again in violation of the court's order," Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School, told BI.
She said this could result in more fines or even jail time.
But Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told BI that "practically speaking," Merchan can do little to stop lawmakers from speaking on Trump's behalf.
"Elected officials have a right to campaign and discuss issues publicly," Rahmani said. "It's a free-speech issue and a matter of public concern, which is entitled to the greatest First Amendment protection."
Jeff Modisett, the former attorney general of Indiana, added that the scope of gag orders typically applies "only to the parties directly involved in the case" and that courts have limited authority to impose them beyond that.
He said a judge could consider extending the gag order to Trump's surrogates if they were deemed to be threatening the integrity of the trial, but any such decision "would need to be carefully justified and balanced against the constitutional rights of free speech and press."
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