DA asks judge to keep gag order in Trump hush money case because of threats

June 22 (UPI) -- Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said major elements of the gag order against Donald Trump from his New York hush money trial should remain in place following a storm of threats.

In a filing Friday to Justice Juan Merchan, prosecutors argued the order must stay in place to protect jurors, lawyers and staffers from the repeated threats of violence from Trump supports that arose after the former president was found guilty in May of 34 counts of falsifying business documents.

According to prosecutors, Trump "has not exempted the jurors from his alarming rhetoric that he would have 'every right' to seek retribution as president against the participants in this trial as a consequence of his conviction because 'sometimes revenge can be justified."

Merchan leveled a gag order against Trump in March, barring him from making public comments about people involved in the case that were "threatening, inflammatory, [and] denigrating."

Trump, however, violated that gag order 10 times before and during the trial before he was convicted.

Prosecutors said they agreed with Trump's attorneys that a provision protecting witnesses was no longer needed, but that the rest of the provisions should remain in place.

"Defendant's supporters, following his lead, have attempted to identify jurors and threatened violence against them," the filing read.

According to the DA filing, the New York Police Department logged 61 "actionable threats" this year against Bragg, his family or his employees, with 56 of those threats received in just the past three months.

Among those threats were messages reading "we will kill you all," and "a post showing sniper shots on people involved in this case or a family member of such a person, and a post disclosing the home address of a DA office employee."

That number does not include the almost 500 other threatening messages that were referred to police, according to the filing.

Trump has vowed to appeal his conviction after the jury found him guilty on all 34 charges of authorizing payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair they had during his 2016 presidential run.

He continues to deny any wrongdoing. His sentencing is set for July 11.

Meanwhile, Trump's lawyers in his Florida classified documents case are pushing back against special counsel Jack Smith's efforts to bar him from speaking about the case ahead of the first presidential debate Thursday.

Smith in May asked the judge to issue a gag order against Trump, arguing his exaggerated remarks that FBI agents were prepared to kill him when they raided his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach endangered officers involved in the case.

Trump's attorneys said Smith's motion is a "naked effort" to silence Trump and that the judge should dismiss it based on the "ambiguities, lack of enforcement criteria, and resulting chilling effect."