A judge may place Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen under a gag order for his negative comments about the ex-president, two former federal prosecutors have said.
Joyce Vance and Preet Bharara were reacting to social media comments by Cohen, who is now expected to be the star witness in Trump's hush money case in New York.
"Witnesses need to keep their mouths shut until they are in the courtroom," Vance said.
She said that Cohen's comments about Trump may now be "fodder" for Trump lawyers when they cross-examine him and may be used by Trump lawyers if he is convicted and appeals the case.
Vance said it is "absolutely" the case that Judge Juan Merchan may impose a gag order on Cohen and said it "would have been fair" to do so already as Trump has been placed under a similar ban. She said that prosecutors were likely hoping that Merchan would have placed both men under a gag order at the same time.
She and Bharara were speaking together on The Insider Podcast on Cafedotcom.
Newsweek sought email comment from Trump and Cohen's attorneys on Wednesday.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is the first former president in United States history to stand trial in a criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has continually said that this case and other criminal and civil matters involving him are politically motivated.
The prosecution seeks to prove that before the 2016 presidential election, Trump paid, or discussed paying, two women—adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal—to not disclose his alleged affairs with them. He denies affairs with either woman.
Merchan fined the former president $9,000 on Tuesday for contempt of court in relation to nine online comments about potential witnesses and others connected to the criminal case in New York.
In his written order, Merchan said that criminal contempt is punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000, and jail time of up to 30 days. The judge also warned Trump that the court will not tolerate "continued willful violations" of the gag order and he would consider "incarceratory punishment" for future violations.
The nine violations for which Trump was fined the maximum $1,000 each were for Trump's online comments and reposts, as well as statements on his campaign website. Many of the comments targeted Cohen and Daniels.
Prosecutors had alleged 10 violations, but Merchan ruled one Truth Social post was not in violation of the gag order as Trump's argument that it was in response to an attack by Cohen was "sufficient to give this Court pause" as to whether it met the threshold.
Bharara said Merchan did not fine Trump for the tenth allegation because Trump may simply have been replying to Cohen's negative comment about him on X, formerly Twitter.
Bharara, a former Manhattan prosecutor, said that Cohen, a key witness in the case "has been out there, shooting his mouth off and talking all kinds of trash about Trump and about the trial" and that it "doesn't seem quite right."
Bharara said that, "out of the goodness of his heart," Cohen eventually said he would dial down his comments out of respect for the court proceedings.
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Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more
