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West Virginia lawmakers pass bill allowing religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements

February 27, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The West Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill Monday that will eliminate school vaccine requirements for those who claim religious exemptions, but only for some schools.

Last week, the House began considering the bill, known as HB 5105, which proposed eliminating vaccine requirements for public virtual schools that do not take part in extracurricular activities or sports in public school settings. The bill was then expanded to propose “eliminating the vaccine requirements for students of public virtual schools, private schools, or parochial schools unless the student participates in sanctioned athletic events, and creating a religious exemption from vaccine requirements,” and then further amended to specifically allow vaccine exemptions “any child whose parents or guardians present a letter stating that a child cannot be vaccinated for religious reasons.”

It’s unclear if the religious exemption will apply to students attending in-person public schools.

The bill will now head to the Senate for debate and, if it passes in that chamber, to the desk of Gov. Jim Justice for signing into law.

Prior to this bill, West Virginia had no non-medical vaccine exemptions from school vaccine requirements, either for religious or philosophical beliefs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Currently, children in West Virginia are required to receive at least one dose of vaccine for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough before entering school for the first time in grades K-12. The COVID-19 vaccine is not required to attend school in West Virginia.

If child’s parents or guardian cannot afford or cannot access vaccines, county health departments will provide vaccines for the child, according to West Virginia law.

To receive a medical exemption from vaccination, a physician must have treated or examined the child, and an exemption request from the physician must be submitted to the state Immunization Officer of the Bureau for Public Health.

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fewer than 0.1% of kindergarten-age students in West Virginia were exempted from vaccines, including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR); diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP); poliovirus (polio); and varicella (chickenpox) for the 2022-23 school year, the lowest exemption rate in the nation.

West Virginia’s strict vaccination laws have also helped improve attendance rates for students and staff, according to the state’s Department of Education.

Delegate Chris Pritt, a sponsor of the bill and a Republican representing Kanawha County, which includes the state capital of Charleston, said the bill allows medical freedom for West Virginians.

“I spoke in favor of a bill to allow more parents to choose whether to vaccinate. [West Virginia] is at the bottom with medical freedom,” he wrote in a post on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. “Mountaineers will never be free until families are able to make decisions on whether to vaccinate!”

Over the weekend, health officer Dr. Steven Eshenaur of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department wrote an opinion in which he criticized the bill.

“Our forefathers and their families experienced the ravages of measles, mumps, tetanus, polio, and meningitis,” he wrote. “Modern medicine has worked diligently to protect our communities through the development and testing of vaccines that have been proven to be safe and effective.”

“Now, legislators want to turn the clock back nearly 100 years and remove some of the safeguards in our vaccination policies,” Eshenaur continued. “If you are anti-vaccination, you are pro-disease. It’s as simple as that.”

Armed bandits rob migrants crossing border illegally, border patrol chief says

February 27, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A group of “armed bandits” near the U.S. southern border attempted to rob migrants crossing illegally, according to U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens.

Owens posted images of a group of migrants in Chula Vista, California, attempting to cross the border on Sunday, only to encounter armed robbers.

“USBP surveillance technology near Chula Vista, CA captured these images of armed bandits robbing several groups as they attempted to enter the country illegally,” Owens said in the post. “Yet another example of the dangers these criminals & smugglers pose to the public, the migrants, and our agents.”

ABC News has reached out to Border Patrol about the incident.

Migrant encounters in the San Diego area, which encompasses Chula Vista, were down in January from November and December of 2023, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Last week, the San Diego sector made over 7,500 apprehensions of migrants from 75 countries, according to Chief Patrol Agent Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel.

President Joe Biden is headed to the border on Thursday, according to a White House official. He is going to Brownsville, Texas.

Alexei Navalny was raised in preliminary prisoner swap talks before his death: Official

February 27, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — After an ally of Alexei Navalny made a bombshell claim that the opposition leader was set to be freed through a prisoner exchange when he died in a Russian penal colony earlier this month, a Western official said his name had, in fact, been raised in discussions about a possible swap — but that those talks were only in early stages.

The official said Navalny came up in conversations between American and German officials about a potential three-country trade including Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian assassin serving a life sentence in Germany, and two wrongfully detained U.S. citizens, but that an offer was never presented to Russia.

The Western official also said it was unclear if Germany would have signed off on the arrangement or whether the proposal would have been appealing to Moscow.

A U.S. official also told ABC News that a prisoner exchange involving Navalny was never extended to the Kremlin.

Maria Pevchikh, a close associate of Navalny, claimed in social media posts on Monday that efforts to secure his freedom in a prisoner swap had been underway for years before he died and that negotiations for a deal involving Krasikov and two Americans were “in the final stages” on the eve of Navalny’s death, which the U.S. has blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who denies involvement.

“The negotiations finally reached the final stage — and then Putin decided that since Krasikov was ready to be given, then he would be given without Navalny. Therefore, he decided to kill him,” Pevchikh alleged in a post on Telegram.

There are two Americans considered by the U.S. to be wrongfully detained in Russia: Paul Whelan, a Marine veteran, and Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter. Both are being held on accusations of espionage that U.S. officials say are fabricated.

While the State Department announced that the U.S. had made Russia an offer for Gershkovich’s and Whelan’s freedom in late 2023, an official said on Monday that Moscow had not seriously engaged on the proposal — casting further doubt on claims made by Pevchikh.

“Our work to try to secure the release of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan continues,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

Miller did not detail ongoing efforts to free Whelan and Gershkovich out of concern that any public statement on the matter could disrupt “the very sensitive work” that was underway. He also declined to comment on Pevchikh’s assertions.

“All I will say about this matter is that we have long called for the release of Alexei Navalny, and that was our position on the matter,” Miller said.

A vocal critic of the Kremlin, Navalny died on Feb. 16 in an Arctic prison, where he had been serving a 19-year sentence for extremism charges that he and his allies said were politically motivated.

The exact cause of his death is still unknown, but the U.S. and other Western nations have said they hold Moscow responsible for his demise and sanctioned Russian prison officials and other entities in response.

Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro asks court to let him remain free while appealing his contempt conviction

February 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro has asked the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to allow him to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.

The filing comes two weeks after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta denied Navarro’s request to remain free during his appeal.

“Dr. Navarro respectfully requests expedited briefing and disposition of this matter because he expects imminent direction to report to the Bureau of Prisons to serve his four (4) month sentence,” Navarro’s attorney wrote to the Court of Appeals on Friday. “Should the Court desire additional time to consider the issue, Dr. Navarro respectfully requests a brief administrative stay of his reporting date pending this Court’s disposition of this motion.”

Judge Mehta, in his ruling two week ago, wrote that “Defendant’s request for release pending appeal is denied. Unless this Order is stayed or vacated by the D.C. Circuit, Defendant shall report to the designated Bureau of Prisons (‘BOP’) facility on the date ordered by the BOP.”

Navarro last month was sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $9,500 fine for defying a congressional subpoena to cooperate with the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In testimony during Navarro’s trial, former Jan. 6 committee staff director David Buckley said the panel was seeking to question Navarro about efforts to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, “In Trump Time.”

Navarro unsuccessfully argued that former President Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege over his testimony and document production.

Police open investigation after students report AI-generated nudes to school district

February 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.) — The Beverly Hills Police Department said it is investigating after a Southern California middle school reported last week that students were allegedly involved in creating and sharing nude images generated using artificial intelligence that featured the faces of fellow students.

“The Beverly Hills Unified School District notified the Beverly Hills Police Department, and a police report was taken. The investigation is ongoing,” Beverly Hills Police Lt. Andrew Myers told ABC News in a statement.

Beverly Hills Unified School District confirmed to ABC News that it received reports from students last week “about the creation and dissemination by other students of Artificial Intelligence generated (AI) images that superimposed the faces of our students onto AI-generated nude bodies.”

The district didn’t specify the number of students impacted by the AI-generated imagery, the existence of which ABC News has not been able to confirm, but said in a statement that “more victims are being identified” and that they are “taking every measure to support those affected and to prevent any further incidents.”

“We want to make it unequivocally clear that this behavior is unacceptable and does not reflect the values of our school community,” the district said in its statement, which was co-signed by Beverly Vista Middle School Principal Dr. Kelly Skon, Beverly Hills Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Bregy, and Mark Mead, the executive director of school safety at the Beverly Hills Unified School District.

“Although we are aware of similar situations occurring all over the nation, we must act now,” the statement continued. “This behavior rises to a level that requires the entire community to work in partnership to ensure it stops immediately.”

The school district said that if “any criminal offenses are discovered, they will be addressed to the fullest extent possible” under the California Education Code, adding that “any student found to be creating, disseminating, or in possession of AI-generated images of this nature will face disciplinary actions, including, but not limited to, a recommendation for expulsion.”

AI photography has been on the rise in the last couple of years, and explicit AI-generated images have been a growing concern in schools and among parents, teachers and administrators.

Last November, Francesca Mani, a 14-year-old New Jersey student, and her mother Dorota Mani spoke to “Good Morning America” after a student at Westfield High School, which Francesca attended, allegedly used artificial intelligence to create nude images of the teen and other girls.

AI-generated images of Taylor Swift even drew a White House response last month, and last October, police in Spain warned that young girls have increasingly become targets of fabricated AI-generated nude images as well.

To lead on AI, US needs to lead on computer chips, commerce secretary says

February 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Artificial Intelligence will be the “defining technology of our generation,” when it comes to the future of technology, but specifically the advancement of semiconductors in the United States, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Monday.

“You can’t lead on AI if you don’t believe in making leading-edge chips,” Raimondo said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And so our work in implementing chips have just got a whole lot more important.”

The Commerce Department is tasked with implementing the CHIPS and Science Act — which spends nearly $53 billion to spur research in and development of America’s semiconductor industry. It is intended to address a nearly two-year global chip shortage that stemmed from supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Semiconductors are not only vital to everyday life used in household items like dishwashers and refrigerators, but also national defense items.

Raimondo said it takes “tens of thousands” of “leading edge semiconductor CHIPS” to train a large language model like ChatGPT.

In order for the United States to keep up with demand, the U.S. has to think not only short-term but long-term as well, Raimondo said.

“We need to make these chips in America, we need more tablets available in America,” she said. “We need more research and development in America. And we take a lot more manufacturing and scale.”

Other countries, like China, “aren’t shy” about the ambitions they have about making CHIPS.

“The Chinese are taking an increasingly ambitious role in increasing their own chip production,” she said.

The Secretary admitted that conversations with CHIP company CEO’s gunning for federal money aren’t always easy and that out of the 600 statements of interest they received, not everyone will get federal money.

“Our job is to make targeted investments in relentless pursuit of achieving our national security objectives,” she said.

Raimondo also said the Commerce Department is prioritizing CHIPs projects that’ll be operational by 2030.

“It’s not responsible to give money to a project that will come online you know, 10 or 12 years from now,” she said.

She said she is confident that the United States will make 20% of the world’s semiconductors by the end of the decade.

Raimondo said she wants to start training kids to manufacture chips starting in High School.

“We’re going to make building hardware sexy again,” she said.

Here we go again: Congress faces looming government shutdown deadline

February 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Congress started to return to Washington on Monday facing a familiar predicament: its back against the wall as the clock ticks down to renew funding for several key government agencies before a Friday deadline.

Absent action from both chambers, Congress is staring down a partial government shutdown at the end of the day Friday — its fourth time in as many months.

Funding for several key agencies will run out on Friday night, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Transportation Department and the Veterans Administration. One week later, on March 8, funding for the remaining eight government agencies will expire if Congress fails to act.

Lawmakers still have time to intervene, and it’s not uncommon to reach a last-minute compromise.

But for the moment, there’s no clear plan for how to pass government funding bills as House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer remain at an impasse over how to proceed, despite ongoing talks between the two.

There was hope the parties would find government-funding clarity over the weekend. However, on Sunday night, with no plan yet it in place to prevent a Friday partial shutdown, congressional leaders instead issued statements sniping at one another.

“While we had hoped to have legislation ready this weekend that would give ample time for members to review the text, it is clear now that House Republicans need more time to sort themselves out,” Schumer wrote in a letter to his colleagues. “With the uncertainty of how the House will pass the appropriations bills and avoid a shutdown this week, I ask all Senators to keep their schedules flexible, so we can work to ensure a pointless and harmful lapse in funding doesn’t occur.”

Within hours of Schumer issuing his letter, Johnson shot back, calling out Schumer for using “counterproductive rhetoric” to get his message across. Johnson said the “the House has worked nonstop” to reach an agreement with the Senate on government funding bills ahead of the March 1 and 8 deadlines.

“This is not a time for petty politics. House Republicans will continue to work in good faith and hope to reach an outcome as soon as possible, even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately,” Johnson said in the statement.

At issue this time around: a House Republican desire to include certain policy provisions in the government funding bills that Democrats find objectionable — such as blocking the Biden administration’s climate-related initiatives and cutting funding for the World Health Organization and other United Nations’ agencies. Johnson was insistent that some of their provisions would make it in to the package after he conceded to an overall cost of the government funding bills that many in his own conference rejected.

But it’s not yet clear how the leaders will navigate through this standoff, and with just days left to act, lawmakers will likely have to pass another short-term funding bill if they hope to prevent a shutdown.

This is the fourth time since October that Congress has stared down a government-funding deadline. Congress has already passed legislation to buy itself more time to negotiate long-term funding bills on three separate occasions since then.

But each passing deadline ups the stakes. Ukraine aid, border security provisions, and Kevin McCarthy’s speakership have all been causalities of previous government-funding snafus.

This most recent government funding deadlock is the latest consequence of heightening political tensions in an election year.

Already, Johnson and Schumer are at loggerheads over a massive Ukraine aid package that the Senate passed earlier this month but that Johnson has said he won’t take up for consideration on the House floor, despite the fact that the legislation likely has the votes to pass the lower chamber.

With both issues now halting progress in Congress, President Joe Biden has called the top congressional leaders from both chambers to the White House on Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to focus both on the looming shutdown and on the funding bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Nikki Haley argues Trump not getting 40% of primary voters is clue he’d lose to Biden

February 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley keeps losing to Donald Trump by double digits but the fact that the former president has only managed to reach 60% of the vote in the contested races so far should be taken as a warning sign, Haley said on Monday.

“Donald Trump as, technically, the Republican incumbent did not win 40% of the vote,” she said in a gaggle with reporters while on the trail one day before Michigan’s Republican primary. “So, what you are looking at is something is shifting and this has been happening for a while.”

Haley was reiterating an argument she has been making more and more, including the previous night in Troy, Michigan: that even though she has yet to win a state in the race for the Republican presidential nomination and her path to catching Trump looks all but gone, a notable minority of conservative voters are signalling that they want someone other than Trump and they deserve an alternative.

“I know 40% is not 50%, but I also know 40% is not some tiny group,” she said on Saturday after losing her home state of South Carolina.

“In the next 10 days, another 21 states and territories will speak. They have the right to a real choice, not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate,” Haley said then. “And I have a duty to give them that choice. We can’t afford four more years of [President Joe] Biden’s failures or Trump’s lack of focus.”

In Michigan on Monday, Haley pointed to the struggles the GOP has had in winning key state races in recent cycles and blamed Trump.

“The party is completely divided. And that’s not just Michigan. We are seeing that all over the country that the Republican Party is fully divided,” she said.

“You can’t win a general election if you don’t acknowledge the 40% of Republicans who are saying we don’t want Donald Trump,” she said.

“I am giving you every red flag I possibly can about the direction that the country is going,” Haley told reporters. “Now I just need people to hear it. I need states that are voting to act on it. And I need to see that we can stop this sinking ship before it takes off.”

The highest vote share Trump has gotten in a contested nominating race in a state so far this year was in South Carolina, with 60%. (He got 74% in the U.S. Virgin Islands caucuses.)

But in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, Haley got at least 40%.

While she has vowed to stay in the race, Trump — who emerged from a much more bruising 2016 primary fight to win the White House that year — has increasingly focused on a likely general election rematch against Biden.

“There’s never been a spirit like this,” he said on Saturday after winning in South Carolina. “And I just want to say that. I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now.”

Asked on Monday if she could name a state she could win in the nominating race, Haley deflected, saying: “wait and see.”

“We have 21 states and territories that are getting ready to happen. Why don’t we wait and see what happens? We don’t have to have a crystal ball and say this is going to happen or that’s going to happen,” she said.

Haley has several fundraisers happening in the days before Super Tuesday on March 5. Asked if that’s a sign she’s planning to stay in the race beyond that day, she touted her fundraising numbers.

“I can tell you that we raised $1 million in 24 hours after the election in South Carolina, that we are continuing to see the dollars come in because Americans want to voice and we’re giving them that voice,” she said, “and as long as Americans want me to be that voice, I will continue to fight for them as long as we think that there is an option.”

Asked by ABC News if her voters would go to Biden or not vote at all in the general election if she is not the Republican nominee, Haley made a blunt prediction.

“I think that if I’m not an alternative in this race, I think that Donald Trump will lose. It’s that simple,” she said.

Pentagon finds no one to blame for keeping Secretary Austin’s hospital stays secret

February 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — No one will be reprimanded for keeping Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospital stays a secret — including the secretary himself or his chief of staff — after an internal Pentagon review of the matter concluded there was no indication of “ill intent or an attempt to obfuscate” the situation.

An unclassifiedhttps://media.defense.gov/2024/Feb/26/2003400135/-1/-1/1/UNCLASSIFIED-S… text to link… of the Pentagon’s findings says concerns about medical privacy and a rapidly changing situation were mostly to blame. But the summary didn’t answer key questions about when individual members of his staff became aware of his condition and whether the defense secretary himself was advised to alert the White House but chose not to.

The Pentagon has provided additional classified details to Congress, officials said.

“As a learning organization, we will continue to learn and adjust,” Austin wrote in a memo to his staff.

The findings didn’t satisfy critics on Capitol Hill who say Austin and his top advisers had a duty to notify Congress, the White House, and the public when the secretary was unable to fulfill his duties.

Austin is expected to testify Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee.

“Unsurprisingly, the review of Sec Austin’s actions, conducted by his own subordinates & subject to his approval, HELD NO ONE ACCOUNTABLE,” tweeted Rep. Mike Rogers, the Alabama Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, following release of the review. “This is why we are conducting our own investigation. We will seek answers at our hearing w/ Sec Austin on Thursday.”

The defense secretary underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure for prostate cancer Dec. 22, which led to a urinary tract infection and serious intestinal complications. He was hospitalized again on Jan. 1, but the White House didn’t learn about either event until Jan. 4. He was released Jan. 5.

Austin’s deputy was granted authority over the Defense Department at various points, but she wasn’t told why she had been put in charge, according to a detailed account provided to lawmakers.

Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Monday that there was never any gap in authority, and that it was clear who was in charge at every point during those two hospital stays.

“This was an unprecedented situation and the staff was using the process and procedures that they have employed previously, and again to the best of their abilities, ensuring … that there were no gaps in command and control,” Ryder said at a briefing Monday.

When pressed on the point that no one was going to be held accountable, Ryder said Austin has already accepted responsibility. Austin has said previously that he called the president to apologize but never at any point considered resigning.

Austin “recognizes that we should have done a much better job notifying those who should have been notified. I will say that the Secretary is very proud of the team that he has supporting him,” Ryder said.

The delay in informing President Biden and top administration officials of his hospitalization remains under investigation by lawmakers and the Pentagon’s inspector general, which is expected to release a separate report later this year. President Biden publicly faulted Austin for not informing him earlier, telling reporters last month he still had confidence in Austin, but noted it was a lapse in judgment.

Austin told reporters earlier this month that his cancer diagnosis was a “gut punch” and that his first instinct was to keep it private. That was a mistake, he said.

“We did not handle this right. I did not handle this right,” Austin said.

ABC’s Matt Seyler and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg asks for gag order in Trump hush money case after dozens of threats

February 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday asked a judge to impose a limited gag order on former President Donald Trump, who is charged in New York with falsifying business records related to hush money he paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

In their request, prosecutors cited what they called Trump’s “longstanding and perhaps singular history” of attacking people he considers to be adversaries, including those associated with his other criminal and civil cases.

The trial in Trump’s hush money case is scheduled to get underway on March 25.

Trump is already under a limited gag order in his federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., and prosecutors in Manhattan are seeking a similar “narrowly tailored order restricting certain prejudicial extrajudicial statements by defendant.”

The motion for a limited gag order on Trump’s public statements includes an affidavit from NYPD Sgt. Nicholas Pistilli, Bragg’s head of security, who noticed “an extraordinary surge” in threats against the DA after Trump began targeting him on social media.

The NYPD Threat Assessment and Protection Unit logged 89 threats against the district attorney, his family or employees of his office in 2023, the first of which occurred the same day Trump posted on social media to “protest, take our nation back!” according to the filing. In all of 2022, the same unit logged just one threat against Bragg, the filing said.

According to the filing, there were some 600 phone calls and emails that were forwarded to police for review in March 2023 alone.

The filing also included photos and screenshots of harassing messages, firearms and handwritten threats that prosecutors said demonstrate the impact of Trump’s social media posts and behavior.

The Manhattan DA’s office also asked the judge to allow the now-infamous “Access Hollywood” tape to be played for the jury. Prosecutors argued the tape is “highly relevant” to Trump’s motive for making the hush payment to Daniels to silence her accusations of a long-denied affair.

“The release of the tape — and the accompanying concerns about its possible impact on the election — are thus directly related to the Stormy Daniels payoff, which was executed just a few weeks later,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo wrote.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts in the hush money case and has criticized Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan, as well as witnesses that include Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.

“[Trump] has a long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him, including jurors, witnesses, lawyers and court staff,” prosecutors said in their filing, adding that Trump’s remarks “pose a significant and imminent threat to the orderly administration of this criminal proceeding.”

In a series of motions filed Monday, prosecutors also asked the judge to bar the defense from introducing evidence or argument about Cohen’s credibility. Cohen was accused of committing perjury when he testified in October in Trump’s civil fraud trial.

The judge in that trial also imposed a limited gag order on Trump that prohibited the former president from making comments about court staff.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office wants the judge to bar Trump from making public statements about witnesses, jurors, court staff and prosecutors other than Bragg.

“As other courts have found, these reasonable prophylactic measures are amply warranted by defendant’s past conduct and by the risk of prejudice to the pending proceeding if appropriate protective steps are not taken,” prosecutors wrote. “The relief requested here is narrowly tailored to protect the integrity of the upcoming trial while still affording defendant ample opportunity to engage in speech, including speech about this case.”

Prosecutors are also seeking a protective order that would prohibit disclosure of juror names to anyone other than Trump and his attorneys.

In a statement to ABC News, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pushed back on the order, saying that, if granted, it would “impose an unconstitutional infringement on President Trump’s First Amendment rights, including his ability to defend himself, and the rights of all Americans to hear from President Trump.”

Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election.

The former president has denied all wrongdoing.

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