President Trump is again lobbing insults at Loren Merchan, the daughter of the judge presiding over the Stormy Daniels hush money case, Juan Merchan, despite a gag order. 

Lawyers for the district attorney and for the defense each sent letters, feuding over the question of whether Mr. Trump’s posts violated the imposed gag order.

Mr. Trump, in an Easter Sunday social media posting, also attacked the Manhattan district attorney who brought the case, Alvin Bragg.   

“HAPPY EASTER TO ALL, INCLUDING CROOKED AND CORRUPT PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES THAT ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO INTERFERE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2024, AND PUT ME IN PRISON,”  the all-caps Truth Social post began. Mr. Trump called out, “LAZY ON VIOLENT CRIME ALVIN BRAGG”, who “ILLEGALLY INDICTED” him in a case “VIRTUALLY ALL LEGAL SCHOLARS SAY IS A CASE THAT SHOULD NOT BE BROUGHT… AND IS NOT A CRIME. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!” 

Mr. Bragg is prosecuting Mr. Trump for covering up an alleged hush-money payment to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to stop her from publicizing a sexual encounter she claims to have had with Mr. Trump in 2006. The deal, prosecutors say, was orchestrated by one of Mr. Trump’s former lawyers, Michael Cohen, intending to bury the affair during the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Trump denies the extramarital encounter and all charges. 

The district attorney was able to elevate the charges, falsification of business records, to felony from misdemeanor counts because he alleges the defendant attempted to commit or conceal a second crime. Although not required by law, these types of second crimes are usually disclosed in the indictments. Not here. Mr. Bragg refrained from specifying the second crime, giving his team the option of pivoting to different crimes during the trial. 

If found guilty, the former president could face a prison sentence. Yet because Mr. Trump has no prior convictions, a more lenient punishment would be more likely. Nonetheless, the criminal trial will be the first against a former president in the history of the United States. Mr. Trump is required to attend the hearings, which are scheduled to start April 15.   

Last Tuesday, Judge Merchan imposed a limited gag order on Mr. Trump, prohibiting him from making public statements about counsel, the court staff, the jurors, and their families. Responding to the restriction, Mr. Trump questioned the impartiality of the judge, and pointed out that the judge’s adult daughter, Loren Merchan, is a Democratic political consultant who has worked on campaigns for Vice President Harris and Congressman Adam Schiff. Mr. Trump further criticized Ms. Merchan for posting a profile picture on her X account that showed an image of him behind bars. 

A representative of the New York state court system clarified that Ms. Merchan could not have been responsible for the image, because she abandoned the account more than a year ago. Mr. Trump, though, continued his attacks against Ms. Merchan the following day, calling the judge’s daughter “a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me.” 

Lawyers for the district attorney filed a letter on Thursday that was unsealed on Friday, asking the judge to “clarify or confirm” that the order included family members of the judge and of the district attorney. 

“This Court should make abundantly clear that the March 26 Order protects family members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order,” the letter said. “Such protection is amply warranted.”

Prosecutors referred to previously submitted evidence that cited Mr. Trump’s “threatening and alarming remarks about family members of trial participants—in this proceeding and others …,” which raised “objectively reasonable concerns about their safety.”  

The fear, prosecutors said, is not “hypothetical.” They explained that “multiple potential witnesses have already expressed grave concerns … about their own safety and that of their family members should they appear as witnesses against defendant.”

Prosecutors asked the judge to “warn” Mr. Trump about his recent comments, “direct him to immediately desist,” and impose necessary sanctions if Mr. Trump refuses to comply. Mr. Trump was fined $15,000 last year after he twice violated a gag order imposed by the judge in his civil fraud trial. 

Defense attorneys answered immediately. “Contrary to the People’s suggestion,” the defense team wrote, referring to the district attorney’s office,  “the Court cannot ‘direct’ President Trump to do something that the gag order does not require.”

“The gag order has been publicly interpreted in the way that President Trump reads it,” the response letter continued, and reminded the court that the March 26 order does not include family members of the judge or of the district attorney. 

“Any additional improper restrictions,” the defense argued, would infringe on Mr. Trump’s “protected campaign speech,” which “would implicate First Amendment rights that belong to not only President Trump but also the public.” 

On Saturday, Mr. Trump posted two photographs of Ms. Merchan, a Facebook selfie and a picture next to her father. “This is a disgrace to our Legal System. Judge Merchan should be immediately sanctioned and recused, and this fake ‘case,’ only kept alive by the Highly Conflicted Judge, should be completely dismissed right away,” he wrote. 

In his post, Mr. Trump linked to an article in the New York Post, which reported that Ms. Merchan raised $93 million in campaign donations for two of her clients, and that these clients used the hush-money case “in their solicitation emails.”  

According to the Federal Election Commission, Mr. Schiff received $20 million in donations since last year, and has continuously referred to Mr. Trump’s hush-money case, the Post reported. 

One of Mr. Schiff’s fundraising emails reads, “It is a somber moment, and unprecedented for a former president to be indicted, but his alleged offenses are also unprecedented.”

“Trump will respond as he always does — playing the victim and blaming others for having the temerity to investigate him in the first place,” Mr. Schiff wrote. 

Unidentified sources told the Post that Mr. Trump’s attorneys are considering filing another motion to ask judge Merchan to recuse himself in what they see is a clear conflict of interest. Mr. Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said “the evidence of bias is even clearer now than it was in August when Merchan rejected Mr. Trump’s first recusal motion.”   

Judge Merchan has not yet responded to the letters.