Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is urging fellow Republicans to help former President Donald Trump "overcome" the gag order in his New York criminal trial.
Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records to conceal the payment of hush money, was ordered by New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to refrain from making public statements about jurors, witnesses, court staff and family members of the judge and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Tuberville, fellow GOP Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and other Republicans attended the Trump trial on Monday and denounced the proceedings in remarks to the press gathered outside the courtroom. Some of the lawmakers specifically spoke on subjects that the ex-president is prohibited from mentioning during the trial due to the order.
During an interview on Tuesday with Newsmax TV, Tuberville encouraged other Republicans to make appearances at the trial and admitted that circumventing the gag order on Trump's behalf was one of the "reasons" he and his colleagues had shown up in New York on Monday.
"Hopefully we'll have more and more senators and congressmen go up every day and represent him," Tuberville said. "And be able to go out and overcome this gag order. That's one of the reasons we went, to be able to speak our piece for President Trump."
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump's office via email on Tuesday evening.
Some prominent Republicans have already followed Tuberville's example, with Florida Congressmen Byron Donalds and Cory Mills, along with former GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum lending their support to Trump in Manhattan on Tuesday.
Repeated attempts by Trump's legal team to remove Merchan's gag order have fallen flat. The latest failure came on Tuesday when a New York appeals court rejected an appeal seeking to invalidate the order.
Trump has been issued with multiple fines for violating the gag order during the first four weeks of the trial. Since imposing the fines, Merchan has also warned the ex-president that further violations may result in time behind bars.
However, political scientists told Newsweek earlier on Tuesday that Merchan is likely powerless to stop Trump's surrogates from doing the ex-president's "dirty work" by speaking on topics that the gag order prohibits.
Mark Shanahan, associate professor in politics at the U.K.'s University of Surrey, said that Trump surrogates "can make the kinds of attack on all aspects of the trial that the defendant can't" unless they are "seen to be directed by Trump in the comments they make."
"In bringing MAGA-loyal members of Congress to the New York courtroom, the Trump team have found an effective, if possibly short-term, means to subvert the gag order on the ex-president," Shanahan said.
Thomas Gift, founding director of the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek that "just how many GOP underlings [Trump] has lined up eager and willing to do his bidding" was "remarkable."
"Trump always relies on his surrogates to do the dirty work for him," Gift said. "For some Republican politicians, there seems to be no limit in how far they're willing to go in defending the leader of their party who's consistently scorned the very idea of the rule of law."
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Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
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