NEW YORK—Former President Donald Trump appeared remotely in the Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday to hear a judge’s instructions on his handling of discovery evidence in the criminal case brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The hearing was Trump’s first appearance after the former President pleaded not guilty in April to 34 counts of felony-level falsifying business records related to alleged hush money payments to adult entertainment actress Stormy Daniels.
Speaking to Trump, who appeared via video conference, Judge Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court told the former president that he signed a protective order on discovery evidence in the case on May 8 and that the protective order (pdf) is a court mandate. The protective order limits what materials Trump could view and where he could view them and bars the former president, or anyone on his team, from leaking the discovery materials to the public….