New York AG Asks Supreme Court to Toss Missouri’s Bid to Block Trump Sentencing, Gag Order

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss Missouri’s petition that seeks to prevent former President Donald Trump’s sentencing in September after his criminal conviction.

Weeks after a Manhattan jury in late May found the 45th president guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. He argued that the conviction and sentencing would violate the rights of voters in his state.

“Accepting Missouri’s limitless theory of standing threatens to inundate the courts with a wave of generalized grievances,” her office also wrote, adding that a person or state could sue “to enjoin any criminal sentencing or order restricting extrajudicial statements by asserting an interest in hearing from, or associating with, the criminal defendant,” suggesting that such a decision could harm the public interest.

Ms. James maintains that the ongoing gag order restrictions don’t provide an obstacle and the upcoming sentencing, which has been moved to September, “may not occur” if New York Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial, sets aside the Trump verdict.

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In response to Missouri’s request to lift the gag order, imposed by Justice Merchan earlier this year, Ms. James’s office said that “the potential sentence and speech restrictions may prove no obstacle to the interests of people” who want to hear from the former president.

Former President Trump, her court papers say, “already can speak about all of the topics that Missouri’s declarants have attested they want to hear—including his views on the Manhattan DA, witnesses, jurors, and the trial court judge.”

The lawsuit alleges New York’s actions imperil Missouri voters’ and electors’ ability to hear from and gain information to cast an informed ballot for president.

In his petition, Mr. Bailey said that the conviction likely will be overturned on appeal, but he said that the constraints that New York put on former President Trump will “limit his ability to campaign,” adding that his state “has a strong, judicially enforceable interest in its citizens and electors being able to hear Trump’s campaigning free from any gag order or other interference imposed by the State of New York.”

The former president was nominated as the Republican Party’s pick for president earlier this month during the Republican National Convention, held in Milwaukee.

In the business records case, the former president had pleaded not guilty and denied a number of allegations that were made against him during the six-week-long trial. He also has vowed to appeal his conviction. He sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 18.