The Trump campaign, along with a number of astute legal observers, believes the judge hearing the case being brought by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Juan Merchan, could issue a gag order. The UK Daily Mail reports:

Donald Trump's legal team is preparing for a New York judge to slap a gag order on the former president on Monday, DailyMail.com can reveal, a day before he is due to be arrested in Manhattan.

The extraordinary move to potentially silence a candidate for president will likely enflame Trump's supporters as he prepares to fly out of his Florida home.

'The Trump legal team now thinks that the Manhattan judge will take the unprecedented step of silencing the presidential frontrunner with an unconstitutional gag order tomorrow,' said a source.

A gag order issued by an anti-Trump judge could be a convenient way to put an end to the former president's 2024 presidential campaign. If its terms are excessive, Mr. Trump couldn't campaign if he honors it.  If he violates it and is held in contempt, he can't campaign in a state that would extradite him.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' previous announcement that he would refuse an order to extradite the former president could potentially mean that Trump would campaign from his adoptive home state of Florida and nowhere else. So-called front porch campaigns, in which a candidate remains close at home, have happened successfully in the past, notably with William McKinley, in addition to James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and Warren G. Harding.  Joe Biden’s basement campaign in 2020 might also qualify, but none of these men were fugitives from a warrant.

It is not difficult to imagine the Florida governor issuing  a statement expressing incredulity at the turn of events in politically-biased Manhattan. Gov DeSantis could add:  "I am merely saving the federal government the cost of explaining to the Manhattan judge why the Former Presidents Act effectively bars incarceration of a former president -- unless the judge anticipates the incarcerated president to be protected in jail by his Secret Service detail -- as federal law requires round-the-clock protection of the president."

The protection given by federal law to the former president would protect him against partisan zealots who would like nothing better than to see him behind bars, where he would  liable to physical assault without the protection of his Secret Service detail.

Would Republicans unite in speaking out publicly opposition to a gag order imposed on a former president protected under federal law?   After all, the legal system that is fast becoming a global laughingstock is the source of their livelihood.   In defending Trump against partisan injustice in New York, they would be defending their profession against ridicule.

Photo credt: Amazon