"Why can't you just let me say mean things about any people I don't like" is a weird defense, but that's why Donald Trump just keeps losing in court.
While he awaits sentencing in his hush money criminal case by Judge Juan Merchan on September 18th (a scant seven weeks before Election Day in November), a New York state appeals court rejected Trump's challenge to a gag order on Thursday.
The decision by the Appellate Division in Manhattan means Trump, who was convicted in May on 34 felony charges including fraud, cannot comment publicly about individual prosecutors and others in the case until his sentencing.
Trump's lawyers have argued that the gag order violated Trump's constitutional free speech rights under the First Amendment.
Prior to the gag order, Trump had made veiled threats to members of Judge Merchan's family, particularly his daughter, a Democratic strategist.
The judge imposed the gag order a few weeks before the trial began on April 22nd, saying Trump's "history of making threatening statements" could "undermine the proceedings."
Merchan's original gag order prevented Trump from commenting on prosecutors, court staff, witnesses, and jurors. A separate order against naming the anonymous jurors remains in effect.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump's team of exhausted unpaid lawyers once again demanded that Merchan recuse himself, citing his daughter's work as a consultant, claiming she has had a "long-standing" relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Merchan rejected a similar recusal request by Trump before the trial began, and another recusal request last year.
They also said the "unjust and unconstitutional" gag order restricts Trump's ability to respond to VP Harris, saying she framed her candidacy as that of "prosecutor vs convicted felon." VP Harris served as California's attorney general earlier in her career.