From the US Supreme Court to state and federal district courts, judges have affirmed their inherent power to control their courtroom by forbidding participants from making public statements whenever they have a "reasonable likelihood of tending to prevent a fair trial, free of prejudice and properly administered." The New York Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys codifies restrictions on lawyers' out of court statements by prohibiting an attorney from making any statement "ordinarily likely to prejudice materially" a criminal matter -- namely, influencing jurors to affect the outcome of a trial. Without a court-ordered gag order, Trump will likely set out to demonize witnesses, cooperators, prosecutors and the judge in his effort to delegitimize the entire criminal justice system, a bedrock American institution that reflects this nation's principle of impartial justice that is based on evidence and truth.
We don't have to guess what Trump will do and say in his assault on justice. On the eve of the indictment being filed, he gave us a clear sign of his strategy when he released the following statement:
"Radical Left New York City and State Prosecutors, who have let murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and all other forms of crime skyrocket to record levels, and who have just announced that they will be releasing hundreds of people involved in violent crime back onto the streets without retribution of any kind, are rude, nasty, and totally biased in the way they are treating lawyers, representatives, and some of the wonderful long-term employees and people within the Trump Organization."
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