The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump’s lawyers filed an expedited appeal on May 15, 2024, pressing New York’s appellate courts to review the gag order in his hush-money case after the state’s intermediate appeals court had already refused to lift it. The move extended a fight over how far the trial court could go in limiting Trump’s public comments while the case proceeded. ([nycourts.gov](https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2024/2024_02873.htm))

The filing itself did not change the order. Under the March 26 trial-court ruling, Trump was barred from making or directing others to make public statements about known or foreseeable witnesses, certain lawyers and court staff, their family members when the speech was aimed at interfering with their work, and any prospective or seated juror in the criminal case. The trial judge said the restrictions were needed to protect the integrity of the proceeding. ([nycourts.gov](https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2024/2024_24122.htm))

Trump had already been fined for violating the order and warned that continued violations could bring harsher sanctions. The May 15 appeal came after that discipline, not before it, leaving him to keep fighting the restriction while still bound by it. ([nycourts.gov](https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2024/2024_24122.htm))

The broader appellate posture matters. The May 15 filing was not a fresh attack on a still-unreviewed order; it was a bid for higher-court relief after the lower appellate court had already left the gag order intact. That sequence kept the underlying limits in place as the hush-money case moved forward. ([nycourts.gov](https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2024/2024_02873.htm))