Supreme Court justices spurned a push from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to effectively delay sentencing and lift the gag order in former President Donald Trump’s hush money case.
Bailey, a Republican, filed the challenge with the high court in early July. It was predicated on the argument that the gag order trampled Trump’s First Amendment rights.
“Missouri’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied, and its motion for preliminary relief or a stay is dismissed as moot,” the Supreme Court said in an order Monday without an explanation as to its reasoning.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have allowed the case to continue, but would not have granted other relief sought, according to the order.
Critics, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James, accused Bailey of trying to meddle in the affairs of a different state and looking for an “end-run” around Trump’s “ongoing state court proceedings.”
New York Judge Juan Merchan had lodged a gag order against Trump back in March ahead of the high-profile trial, before loosening it afterward.
Trump is now banned from talking about court staff, family members of those involved in the case, and prosecutors. But he can discuss witnesses in the case after Merchan lifted that part of the gag order.
Bailey suggested that the gag order could have negative implications for his state by limiting voters’ ability to hear from the Republican presidential nominee.
“Trump is still under a gag order, he will be under that order for at least the next two months, and New York imminently threatens to impose a sentence hindering or destroying Trump’s ability to campaign between now and November,” his office told the high court.
Bailey further decried the hush money case against Trump as “lawfare.”
Trump, 78, had been found guilty on 34 counts back in May, but sentencing — initially slated for July — had been delayed until at least September. The former president has vowed to appeal the verdict.
Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to several individuals including adult film actress Stormy Daniels to catch and kill damaging stories about him ahead of the 2016 election.
The verdict was the first time a sitting or former US president had been criminally convicted. Trump had also faced an additional 57 counts spanning three other cases.
That’s now been whittled down to 14 counts between his 2020 election subversion case and the Georgia election tampering case — both of which are in limbo pending various appeals.
Last month, US District Judge Aileen Cannon tossed out a 40-count indictment against Trump for allegedly working to hoard classified national security documents.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution on core official acts and the presumption of immunity on more peripheral acts.
The high court remanded Trump’s challenge against the four-count 2020 election subversion case back to the lower courts to determine whether the case can move forward in light of that decision.
Trump’s team is fighting to quash the guilty verdict in the hush money case based on the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
