WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court On Monday, the state of Missouri declined to intervene in a long-running lawsuit in which the former president tried to block the trial. Donald Trump‘s hush money case in New York.
The court rejected Missouri’s bid to sue New York state, meaning the judges will do just that In an unusual lawsuit brought by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who is running for a full term this fall, do not overturn the gag order or delay the sentence.
Many commentators said that the complaint was more of a political game aimed at gaining public fame than a serious legal claim. It resonated to some extent Texas’ attempt It was also quickly rejected by the Supreme Court to challenge election results in states where Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to President Joe Biden.
“New York is working to hijack our national election and imprison President Trump. Missourians have a vested interest in making sure that doesn’t happen,” Bailey he said Monday in a post On X.
Letitia James, a spokeswoman for the New York Attorney General, declined to comment.
The brief ruling noted that the two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, would not grant Bailey the emergency relief he sought, but would at least allow the state to appeal directly to the Supreme Court. It follows their approach in similar cases involving one state suing another, including the 2020 election case.
Trump was convicted 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments made to attorney Michael Cohen as compensation for hush money payments to adult movie star Stormi Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Daniels said she had sex with Trump in 2006, which he denied.
New York Judge Juan Mercan issued a preliminary gag order ahead of Trump’s trial in March. Merchan after the trial removed some of the restrictionsallowing him to talk about the witnesses and the jury who testified.
Trump has been restricted from commenting on court staff, individual prosecutors and family members of those involved in the case.
It remains unclear whether Trump will even be convicted before the November election. Although the verdict was originally scheduled for July, it is already ready postponed to September the earliest.
Bailey took the rare step of suing New York State before the Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over interstate disputes.
Typically, such disputes involve issues such as water rights over rivers that cross state borders.
It would be highly unusual for the Supreme Court to allow one state to intervene in another state’s legal proceedings.
Bailey argued in his filing that the gag order and potential penalty prevented Missouri voters from hearing relevant information from the presidential candidate in the middle of the campaign.
“Missouri has a strong, court-enforceable interest in its citizens and voters being able to listen to the Trump campaign free from any gag order or other interference imposed by New York State,” the court said in the filing.
Responding to the allegations, James said in court that there was no reason for the Supreme Court to intervene and said that the complaint “consists of generalized and speculative complaints.”
Trump, he added, “can now talk about all the topics” the state said voters might want to hear.
Bailey, James said, “is clearly and impermissibly seeking to advance the personal interests of former President Trump.”
Before the trial, Trump was fined for violating the original gag order, particularly as it related to one of the key witnesses, Cohen.
Bailey was appointed Missouri Gov. Mike Parson became attorney general in 2022 when incumbent Eric Schmitt was elected to the Senate. Bailey is now running for a full term.