Tony Grist
A long-shot bid by Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey to block the sentencing of the former President Donald Trump in his New York hush money case was denied by the Supreme Court on Monday.
Bailey argued in a court filing that Trump’s sentencing and a limited gag order handed down by New York Judge Juan Merchan deprived voters the opportunity to properly hear from Trump.
“Missouri has a strong, judicially enforceable interest in its citizens and electors being able to hear Trump’s campaigning free from any gag order or other interference imposed by the State of New York,” Bailey wrote in the filing.
Trump was found guilty on felony charges related to allegedly covering up a $130,000 hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels, which prosecutors argued was meant to help his 2016 campaign for president. Trump has vehemently denied he ever slept with Daniels and is expected to appeal the conviction after his already-delayed sentencing, now scheduled for September.
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Merchan’s initial gag order prevented Trump from speaking about witnesses and the jury. Those restrictions were removed in a revised gag order that Merchan issued following the trial, which prohibits Trump from speaking about court staff, prosecutors, and family members involved in the case.
“Instead of letting presidential candidates campaign on their own merits, radical progressives in New York are trying to rig the 2024 election by waging a direct attack on our democratic process,” Bailey remarked when filing the case.
Conservative Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas noted they would allow Bailey’s suit against New York to go forward but would not provide the “emergency relief” that Bailey sought before the November 5 general election.
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