Gag's up! Trump gets partial reprieve ahead of debate with Joe Biden

Following Donald Trump's conviction on criminal charges related to bribing a porn star for her silence, a New York court partly lifted a gag order on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday (June 25).

Though Trump's remarks regarding specific prosecutors and other case participants are still restricted, the amended order permits him to talk publicly about the prosecution's witnesses.

The gag order, according to Trump's attorneys, was suppressing his campaign speech and making it more difficult for him to refute Democratic President Joe Biden's criticisms when they square off on June 27.

Alvin Bragg's office of prosecutors in Manhattan stated that there was no longer a need to impose restrictions on Trump's comments about trial witnesses.

They did, however, ask Justice Juan Merchan to preserve limits on his statements regarding jurors, court staff, and individual prosecutors, citing safety concerns.

Prosecutors argued that such limits were still necessary, citing Trump supporters' attempts to identify members of the secret jury and threats of violence against them.

"There thus remains a critical need to protect the jurors in this case from attacks by the defendant and those he inspires to action," they stated in a court filing on June 20.

A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on May 30 of concealing his former attorney Michael Cohen's $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Daniels was threatening to go public with her account of a sexual encounter with Trump before the 2016 election.

This was the first criminal trial of a US president.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 11, four days prior to his party's official nomination meeting for the presidential elections.

During the seven-week trial, Trump disobeyed the gag order 10 times. The court penalised him $10,000 for this infraction and threatened to put him in jail on May 6.

(With inputs from agencies)