Top Judge Sits Out Donald Trump Case

Former President Donald Trump gives remarks to the press at the National Republican Senatorial Committee building on June 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. Chief Justice Rowan Wilson did not take part in the New York Court of Appeals decision to dismiss Trump's gag order appeal on Tuesday.

The chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals sat out former President Donald Trump's appeal of the gag order in his criminal hush money case.

The state's highest court declined to hear Trump's appeal on Tuesday, dismissing his effort to fight the gag order "without costs" and "upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved."

Chief Justice Rowan Wilson, who supervises the seven-judge bench, did not participate in the decision, nor did Judge Caitlin Halligan.

Gary Spencer, a spokesperson for the New York Court of Appeals, told Newsweek that Wilson recused himself because Judge Juan Merchan, who imposed the gag order, is being represented by an attorney employed by the state's Unified Court System.

"Chief Judge Wilson is the head of the Court System," Spencer said.

Spencer said Halligan recused herself "because she served as counsel to the Manhattan DA's Office in a related matter, Trump v. Vance, in 2020."

Trump has 30 days to file a motion for leave to appeal. Once he does so, the court will decide whether or not to hear the case again.

Tuesday's decision means Trump's gag order in the Manhattan case—which prohibits him from speaking about jurors, witnesses, prosecutors, court staff or members of their family—will remain in effect. It does not bar Trump from speaking about Merchan or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Merchan initially granted the gag order in March, before the trial began, at the request of prosecutors who had argued the court should take all necessary precautions given Trump's "long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him."

Trump's legal team has asked the judge to terminate the gag order since the trial is over. On May 30, the jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump is appealing the verdict.

"This Gag Order restricts President Trump's core political speech on matters of central importance at the height of his Presidential campaign, where he is the leading candidate, and thus it violates the fundamental right of every American voter to hear from the leading candidate for President on matters of enormous public importance," Trump's attorneys said in a filing to the appeals court.

Bragg's office has argued that the gag order should remain in place ahead of Trump's July 11 sentencing hearing. In a June letter to Merchan, prosecutors from his office argued that the restrictions were not only needed to "avoid threats to the fairness of the trial itself," but to ensure the court's "broader 'obligation to prevent actual harm to the integrity of the proceedings.'"

During the trial, Trump was fined $10,000 and held in criminal contempt for violating the gag order 10 times. Merchan also warned that he would have to jail Trump if he continued to do so.

Wilson, who has served on the appeals court since 2017, was nominated by Governor Kathy Hochul to serve as chief judge last year. The New York Senate confirmed his nomination on April 18, 2023.

Update 6/18/24, 3:30 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comments from Gary Spencer, a spokesperson for the New York Court of Appeals.

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