A CNN panel on Saturday agreed that Judge Juan Merchan should impose gag orders on the witness against former President Donald Trump.
Trump’s gag order prohibits him from making public statements about witnesses in the trial, which include his previous attorney Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels, both of whom have talked about the case on social media and criticized the former president. The panel on “The Chris Wallace Show” agreed Merchan should gag Cohen and Daniels for the sake of fairness.
“I think they should put the gag order on all of them,” podcast host Kara Swisher said. “I have to say, I think they should put it on Cohen, he’s been all over the place. Stormy Daniels.”
“Yeah! That too,” New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro said, with Wallace also chiming in to express his agreement.
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“That seems fair. Because social media is everywhere,” Swisher added.
Merchan rejected in March Trump’s request to prevent Daniels and Cohen from testifying.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche said Cohen wore a shirt with a picture of the former president behind bars. Merchan requested on Friday that prosecutors inform Cohen “the judge is asking him to refrain making any more statements.”
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said his team has “repeatedly asked witnesses” not to discuss the case.
“The judge did say on Friday, he did say to the prosecutor, tell Cohen to shut up,” Wallace said. “And he said, ‘I don’t have any control over Cohen.’”
Cohen is set to testify against Trump on Monday, with former federal prosecutor Jon Sale predicting on Friday that he will not be the final witness.
“If you look at David Pecker, the first witness, frequently the prosecution wants to start off with a good witness and end with a good witness,” Sale said. “So I don’t think that Michael Cohen’s going to be the last witness. But I think what they’re concerned about is that he testify to a point where, like Stormy Daniels did, where he demonstrates that he is so biased that he might not have told the truth.”
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