Trump Can Now Criticize Witnesses Who Testified Against Him, Judge Rules

A judge on Tuesday loosened a gag order on Donald J. Trump in his Manhattan criminal case, allowing the former president to criticize witnesses who took the stand against him as well as others involved in the trial that led to his conviction.

The judge, Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Mr. Trump’s seven-week trial this spring, ruled that Mr. Trump is now free to complain about the prosecution’s witnesses, including his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen. Once Mr. Trump is sentenced on July 11, the judge ruled, he can publicly assail others who are currently covered by the gag order, including prosecutors and their relatives.

Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is still subject to a different order prohibiting him from releasing the identities of jurors, or publicly attacking them by name.

But under Justice Merchan’s ruling, Mr. Trump can now complain broadly about the jury that convicted him. The judge appeared conflicted about his decision involving the jury on Tuesday, writing that “it would be this court’s strong preference to extend those protections,” but he said that he felt the law required him to drop the restrictions.

The unwinding of the order could unleash Mr. Trump’s wrathful rhetoric about the people involved in the case against him just as he prepares to debate President Biden this week.

Mr. Trump referenced the ruling in a fund-raising appeal Tuesday afternoon, and echoed his baseless claims that the outcome of the trial had been predetermined. “I’m finally FREE to talk about the RIGGED trial that convicted me in New York,” he wrote, adding that the judge’s decision had come “JUST IN TIME FOR MY DEBATE WITH CROOKED JOE!”