--- title: New Trump Filling in Hush Money Case Gets Around Gag Order description: A gag order blocks Trump from speaking publicly about Judge Juan Mercan's family. He filed a new motion focused entirely on the judge's daughter. canonical: https://time.com/6964255/trump-judges-daughter-gag-order/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-05T21:39:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T10:53:23.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Targets Judge's Daughter in Court Filing Despite Gag Order og:description: A gag order blocks Trump from speaking publicly about Judge Juan Mercan's family. He filed a new motion focused entirely on the judge's daughter. og:url: https://time.com/6964255/trump-judges-daughter-gag-order/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcf6cd5b12369023/698a556cd075338619e70a56/GettyImages-2105327818.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-JUSTICE-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Targets Judge's Daughter in Court Filing Despite Gag Order twitter:description: A gag order blocks Trump from speaking publicly about Judge Juan Mercan's family. He filed a new motion focused entirely on the judge's daughter. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcf6cd5b12369023/698a556cd075338619e70a56/GettyImages-2105327818.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump’s Using Court Filings to Get Around His Gag Order > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=f4f50e34-cf95-45cd-8f00-c7f41c658fc5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/subscribe?i=f4f50e34-cf95-45cd-8f00-c7f41c658fc5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is TIME's politics newsletter? D.C. Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Updated: Jan 19, 2026 10:53 AM UTCPublished: Apr 5, 2024 9:39 PM UTC  Former President Donald Trump arrives at 40 Wall Street after his court hearing to determine the date of his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs in New York City on March 25, 2024. Former President Donald Trump arrives at 40 Wall Street after his court hearing to determine the date of his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs in New York City on March 25, 2024.Charly Triballeau—AFP via Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Updated: Jan 19, 2026 10:53 AM UTCPublished: Apr 5, 2024 9:39 PM UTC With his first criminal trial [set to start next week](https://time.com/6960389/trump-new-york-criminal-trial-hush-money-date/), Donald Trump on April 5 launched a fresh attack on the judge presiding over the case, one that also tests the boundaries of a gag order issued by the judge against him. Trump’s presidential campaign publicized a motion filed on April 3 demanding Judge Juan Merchan recuse himself from the New York hush money case "in light of appearances of impropriety" stemming from his daughter’s work with a company that does political marketing for Democratic campaigns. Trump’s 35-page [motion](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24534225/2024-04-03-djt-recusal-motion-brief.pdf)—and its 119 pages of exhibits—comes after Merchan expanded the existing gag order on Trump to include banning him from making public comments about Merchan’s family or that of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's, after the former President had repeatedly made comments arguing that the work of Merchan’s daughter meant he couldn’t preside over the jury trial impartially. The order does not prevent Trump from criticizing the judge and the district attorney directly. Trump seems to be testing a way around the gag order by putting his public criticism of the daughter of the judge into the public court filings themselves, and then promoting the filings. **Read More:** [_A Guide to All of Trump’s Indictments—and Where Each Case Stands_](https://time.com/6301112/trump-criminal-cases-status/) The filing says that Loren Merchan has held leadership positions at a political marketing company called Authentic that was paid to develop ads in 2019 for Kamala Harris’s presidential primary campaign and has since produced ads for the campaigns of Democratic members of congress, including Rep. Adam Schiff and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. In demanding that Merchan recuse himself, Trump's legal team argues that the work of Merchan’s daughter for Democratic political campaigns creates “appearances of impropriety" and should be grounds for the judge’s recusal. Trump’s filing also said Merchan's gag order "improperly restricts" Trump's "constitutionally protected campaign speech". Bragg's office called Trump's claims a "daisy chain of innuendos" that are a "far cry from evidence." Anticipating Trump's motion, prosecutors in the case told Merchan in a letter on April 2 that the court and an advisory committee on judicial ethics have already determined that the political activities of a relative are not a basis to question a judge's impartiality. There is a longstanding practice in American courts that a person’s views are not defined by those of their family members. Bragg's office went further in a court filing made public on Monday, telling the judge to reject Trump's effort to get him to recuse himself and describing the maneuver as a "last-ditch attempt" to delay the trial set to start in one week. In Monday's filing, Bragg said Judge Merchan should not recuse himself, saying Merchan already denied Trump's request for his recusal last year, and Trump hasn't met the standards for that to be reconsidered. Bragg described Trump’s motion as "an effort to end-run the order restricting extrajudicial speech" and "pollute the court file with ad hominem" attacks against the judge and his daughter. Bragg is bringing Trump to trial to face charges he faked business records to cover up a sex scandal involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 election. The trial is set to start on April 15, but would be delayed if Mercan were to agree to Trump's request to recuse himself. Trump is facing charges in three other criminal cases, including felony charges for trying to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia, engineering a violent effort to overturn the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, and refusing to return classified documents after leaving office. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6964255/trump-judges-daughter-gag-order/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6964255/trump-judges-daughter-gag-order/"},"headline":"Trump’s Using Court Filings to Get Around His Gag Order","datePublished":"2024-04-05T21:39:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T10:53:23.000Z","description":"A gag order blocks Trump from speaking publicly about Judge Juan Mercan's family. 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