The former President today was given a limited gag order in his New York hush money trial. The charges stemmed from reimbursements made to Trump's then lawyer for payments he made before the 2016 election to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, alleging an affair with Trump. The former President has pleaded not guilty and denies the affair with the limited gag order. He's still free to rail against the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who, as you may know, already has multiple death threats against him, but he can't target prosecutors or witnesses or jurors. The judge cited his history threatening inflammatory statements in a number of cases.

Deranged Jack Smith. Have you ever heard of him? Deranged Jack Smith. Deranged Jack Smith. The deranged one, I call him. Doesn't he look deranged? You take a look at that face, you say, That guy is a sick man. There's something wrong with him. I meet a woman outside of Bergdorff Goodman. I took her upstairs to a changing booth. It was all made up. I don't even know who this woman is. What else can you expect from a Trump-hating Clinton-appointed judge? I have a Trump-hating judge. This rogue judge, a Trump hater. We have a rogue judge. This judge is a lunatic, and if you've ever watched him, and the attorney general may be worse, may be worse. You ever watch her? I will get Donald Trump. Latisha James, the corrupt attorney general of New York. She's a corrupt person. She's got serious Trump derangement syndrome. Every single day, in suing him, I'm going to sue him.

By the way, under this limited gag order, he can still rail against, as I said, Alvin Bragg, the district attorney, even the judge on the case, as he has before, just not witnesses or jurors or prosecutors. The judge said an April 15th trial date, as you may know, rejecting the former president's latest attempts to delay it. Joining me now is legal analyst, Ellie Honig, and senior correspondent, Kara Skanelle. Was this a limited gag order? Was this expected?

So it's interesting. The prosecution made this request a month ago, and the judges had it fully briefed for three weeks, and He had made other findings on other motions in that time period, but he waited until today to do it. He noted in his gag order statements that Trump made yesterday after the hearing at 40 Wall Street, where he criticized by name one of the prosecutors in the case, Matthew Kalandjaro. He's one of the lead attorneys. It was after that that the judge issues this gag order, also after Trump had made comments about the judge and his daughter on social media. But this will not cover the judge, and it, based on the reading of the order, doesn't appear to cover his daughter either. But That the judge saying that he was taking all of Trump's statements, many of the ones that we just played, in totality. His view of it was, he said that these extrajudicial statements went far beyond defending himself against attacks by public figures. Indeed, his statements were threatening, inflammatory, denigrating, and the targets of his statements range from local and federal officials, court and court staff, prosecutors and staff assigned to the cases, and private individuals, including grand jurors performing their civic duty.

So saying that this is not just Trump defending himself. At the beginning of this case, he said he wasn't going to step in. He was not going to put a gag order. But now he's saying, based on the evidence that there have been an increase in threats against the district attorney's office and the prosecutors, that he thought now it was important. I thought another line that he had in there is he said, Because the trial is so close, just three weeks away, he said the risk of harm is now paramount.

What do you think about this? Because again, he's free to attack the public figures, just not the witnesses or the jurors.

I think this gag order is perfectly appropriate because it is carefully crafted. It's narrow. We use this phrase gag order. Lawyers use it, regular people use it, but it's a bit misleading because when you think of someone who's gagged like an action hero in an '80s movie, they can't talk at all. Donald Trump can still say plenty here. He can still criticize the judge, the DA, he can say this case- That's why I keep calling it a limited gag order because you know he's going to fundraise off this saying, Oh, look, they're trying to silence me when in fact, again, it's just the public figures he can still go after. And that's why I think it's going to survive. If he appeals, I think it's absolutely He's really going to survive because what this gag order protects is the jurors, the witnesses, and the staff. They're the most vulnerable people. They're the people who need to be protected. They're off limits.

Everything else, though, he's free to talk. What would the punishment, though, actually be?

As we saw in the civil case, Trump violated that gag order a couple of times, and it cost him a couple of thousand dollars. Nothing that was that serious to him. I mean, in this case, it's not clear. It's not like he would get sent to jail right away if he violated it. But the judge also, in a separate order today relating to a challenge to his process of receiving these motions, did have a shot across the bow to the attorney saying, he's all for zealous advocacy, but he says, you have to follow the decorum and the order of the court. Really imposing over these past two days, we're starting to see him say he's trying to keep this in line and trying to impose some order over it. I mean, he hasn't said what would the sanction be if this was violated, but it could be monetary. It would be a leap to put him in jail.

Usually, the judge would give you a verbal admonishment first, which for an ordinary person is enough to dissuade you. You don't want the judge ticked off at you. Then you get into financial penalties, and then ultimately, we're not going to get there, but theoretically, he could lock him up.

How long do you think this trial will go?

The DA has said six weeks, but trials, having done them, have a way of sliding and extending. Maybe a juror gets sick, maybe a witness's testimony last longer. The other thing is the DA can only estimate the DA's case. The DA doesn't necessarily know what the defense is going to do in their case. Now, a defendant does not have to put any affirmative case. But of course, the big question is, will Trump take the stand? We don't know. But if he does, this could go seven, eight weeks. We're going to be busy from mid-april. And Kara is right. The judge reaffirms in this opinion. He says, We are on the Eve of trial from mid-April through June or so?

Has the Trump team responded to the limited gag order?

So his lead attorney, Todd Blanch, declined to comment on it. His campaign spokesman was saying this is an attack against the First Amendment. It's unconstitutional. The judge explained in the order that this went far beyond what he saw as the constitutionally protected First Amendment speech. They haven't said. I asked directly if they were going to appeal this. They declined to comment on that as well. So we'll wait and see if they do. But on the point of their witnesses, I mean, Trump has said... His attorneys have said they want to call an expert witness. The judge said that person is not really an expert. So if you're going to call them, their testimony is going to have to be very different than what you think it's going to be. Or it's possibly Donald Trump. They don't have a big list of witnesses. At least so far, they could still change their mind.

It would be extraordinary if he took the stand.

Oh, my gosh. It would be, I think, reckless, but it would be certainly very dramatic. One important point on the appeal. If Donald Trump tries to appeal this gag order, A, he will lose, B, it will not delay the start of this trial.