NEW YORK — New York’s top court on Tuesday declined to hear Donald Trump’s gag order appeal in his hush money case, leaving the restrictions in place following his felony conviction last month. The Court of Appeals found that the order does not raise “substantial” constitutional issues that would warrant an immediate intervention.

The decision is the latest legal setback for the Republican former president, who has repeatedly railed against a gag order that prevents him from commenting on witnesses, jurors and others who were involved in the case. But it could be short lived. The trial judge, Juan Merchan, is expected to rule soon on a defense request to lift the gag order.

A Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said Tuesday the ex-president’s legal team would “continue to fight against the unconstitutional Gag Order imposed by Justice Merchan.”

Trump’s attorneys filed a notice of appeal with the state’s high court on May 15, during the former president’s landmark criminal trial. They argued that the gag order restricted Trump’s “core political speech on matters of central importance at the height of his Presidential campaign.”

But the Court of Appeals disagreed. In a decision list posted on Tuesday, the court said it would not automatically hear the case, writing that “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.”

Trump’s lawyers were essentially seeking a shortcut to expedite their appeal, which was rejected by the state’s midlevel appeals court last month. They now have 30 days to file a motion for leave to appeal, according to court spokesperson Gary Spencer.

Merchan imposed the gag order on March 26, a few weeks before the start of the trial, after prosecutors raised concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s tendency to attack people involved in his cases.

During the trial, Merchan held Trump in contempt of court and fined him $10,000 for violating the gag order. The judge threatened to put Trump in jail if he did it again.

The order remains in effect weeks after the conclusion of the trial, which ended with Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier, which he denies. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 11.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office had urged the Court of Appeals to reject the appeal. In their own letter, prosecutors noted the question about whether the order should be lifted could be dealt with through post-trial court filings.

Trump’s lawyers have argued that he should be entitled to fully address the case, given the continued public criticism of him by his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen and Daniels, both key prosecution witnesses.

Days after the verdict, they sent a letter to Merchan asking him to lift the gag order. They followed up last week with a formal motion requesting that the restrictions be rescinded. Prosecutors have until Thursday to respond. Merchan is expected to rule soon after that, possibly before Trump’s June 27 debate with President Joe Biden.

In a separate legal issue stemming from the former president’s 2020 campaign, lawyers Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis and former U.S. Senate candidate James Lamon have pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in a case about trying to overturn Trump’s Arizona election loss to Joe Biden.

The hearing Tuesday in a Phoenix courtroom marked the last of 18 arraignments in the fake elector case. Fifteen other people, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Epshteyn, a Trump adviser, is accused of assisting Giuliani in carrying out the scheme to submit fake electors for Trump in Arizona and obstruct the certification of election results by Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.

Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges in late April. In all, charges were brought against 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump had won Arizona, five lawyers connected to the former president and two former Trump aides. Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.

Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment.

Arizona authorities say Ellis made false claims of widespread election fraud in the state and six others, encouraged the Arizona Legislature to change the outcome of the election and encouraged then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept Arizona’s fake elector votes.

Lamon, a businessman who lost a 2022 Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, is accused of falsely stating he was a duly elected and qualified elector.

Last year, Ellis was charged in Georgia after she appeared with Giuliani at a December 2020 hearing hosted by state Republican lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol during which false allegations of election fraud were made.

She pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings after reaching a deal with prosecutors.