Judge denies Trump’s attempt to lift gag order so he can ‘respond’ to Stormy Daniels testimony

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York has shot down his latest attempt to lift a gag order after his legal team argued he should be able to respond to testimony from adult film star Stormy Daniels.

New York Justice Juan Merchan said he was not only concerned about attacks against Ms Daniels and other witnesses but with “protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole.”

The order is in effect “precisely because of the nature of these attacks, the vitriol,” he said on Thursday.

“These were real, very threatening attacks on these witnesses,” he added.

Mr Trump’s attorneys filed the motion on Thursday after Ms Daniels returned to the witness stand face more cross-examination from defense attorney Susan Necheles, who repeatedly accused her of lying and using her story to profit from Mr Trump’s criminal case.

Her testimony followed Tuesday’s vivid account of her alleged sexual encounter with Mr Trump in 2006, including details that even the judge deemed unnecessary.

After she left the courtroom on Thurdsay, Mr Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche argued that the gag order should be amended so that Mr Trump can “respond” to her testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy accused the defense team of living “in an almost alternate reality.”

“There is a proceeding here that this order is designed to protect. It’s important to underscore why it was issued in the first place to put in context,” he said, adding that the former president was predisposed to firing off comments “indiscriminately against anyone he deems worthy of his venom.”

Changing the gag order in the middle of a trial would “say to future witnesses that they could be at risk as well,” Mr Conroy said.

Modifying the gag