On March 26, 2024, Justice Merchan issued a Decision and Order restricting extrajudicial statements by the defendant in Indictment No. 71543-23. A scan is on DocumentCloud. The People had moved on February 22, 2024. Trial, the order recites, was then set for April 15, 2024.
On April 1, 2024 (the Law Journal dated its story April 2), he amended the March 26 order after a March 28 People’s letter asking whether family members of the court and of the district attorney were covered. The April order states that the March 26 order had not contemplated those family members, and it amends the restriction to include them. DocumentCloud and Just Security host the scan.
A separate official PDF, April 12, 2024, denies a defense motion for further adjournment based on pre-trial publicity. Merchan wrote that the remedy sought — an indefinite adjournment — was “not tenable,” and that voir dire, not delay, was the proper tool. That is a different order. Do not collapse it into the gag.
RealClearPolitics, May 7, 2024 (“Judge Merchan Is Out of Good Options”) is commentary on the gag-order fight. Label it commentary. It is not the March 26 or April 1 text.