Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe called Alvin Bragg’s request for an expanded gag order against Donald Trump nothing but a “distraction” from the criminal hush money case against the former president.
McCabe’s comments to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer came Monday after the Manhattan district attorney filed court papers urging Judge Juan Merchan to clarify the gag order so it would prevent Trump from verbally attacking both Merchan and Bragg’s family members.
Currently, the gag order imposed last week applies to people involved in Trump’s prosecutions, as well as their families. Neither Merchan nor Bragg and their family members were included in the gag order.
“Wolf, I’m afraid that the request for clarification by D.A. Bragg is a perfect example of how these gag orders create more of a distraction than they do a productive limitation of…Donald Trump’s speech,” McCabe said, continuing:
I think each time we’ve had a gag order, whether it’s in the civil case, or the gag order in the D.C. federal case that’s already been litigated — each time the Trump team takes advantage of the imposition of those orders to file appeals to request clarification, to make overheated statements. All of that distracts the prosecutors and the prosecution team away from their main role, which is to stay focused on the case and put together the best case they can. I’m just not convinced that these gag orders are worth the effort that has to go behind.
Gloria Borger added, “And I think Trump and his attorneys know exactly what they’re doing, which is trying to delay everything, because you end up going down a rabbit hole of, what do you do with the gag order? Do you challenge the gag order? Do you challenge the judge? And one thing leads to another and you’re delaying the trial.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
