A federal judge has reimposed a gag order on former president Donald Trump’s public statements in advance of his trial on charges of conspiring to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
The restrictions that U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan put back in place Sunday evening were ones she had lifted nine days earlier to give Trump and U.S. prosecutors more time to argue whether the gag was unconstitutional, as attorneys for the former president had claimed. Trump can now ask a higher court for an emergency stay pending appeal, but in the meantime he is bound by Chutkan’s limits.
“The First Amendment rights of participants in criminal proceedings must yield, when necessary, to the orderly administration of justice,” Chutkan wrote Sunday, adding that Trump offered nothing that made his appeal seem likely to succeed. She said Trump “simply fails to acknowledge … evidence” that his public statements are often followed by harassment and threats against the people he singles out.
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Under the order, Trump and all interested parties in the case are barred from making or directing others to make public statements that “target” individual attorneys, witnesses, “any reasonably foreseeable witness,” or court staff involved in the case or the substance of their testimony.
Trump said those limits were unconstitutionally vague, a position supported by the American Civil Liberties Union. Chutkan said Trump’s own actions indicated he understood where the line was. While the order was on hold, Trump posted a comment on social media calling special counsel Jack Smith “deranged” and saying former chief of staff Mark Meadows would be a lying coward if he testified for the prosecution. Both comments involved some of the exact type of language Chutkan deemed out of bounds. During the week the gag was in place, he used less specific language to call the trial and the Biden administration “corrupt,” which is allowed under the order.
But Trump appeared to potentially violate Chutkan’s order 75 minutes after she gave notice that it was reinstated, attacking his former attorney general, William P. Barr, a potential witness.
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“I called Bill Barr Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN’T DO THE JOB,” Trump said in part of an 88-word post on his social media platform that both belittled the man he chose to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer and exaggerated his crowd sizes. “So now this Moron says about me, to get even, ‘his verbal skills are limited.’ Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before. Tell that to the biggest political crowds in the history of politics, by far. Bill Barr is a LOSER!”
About 19 minutes after his post about Barr, Trump complained on social media that he had: “The Corrupt Biden administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech.”
In other cases, violators of gag orders have gone to jail, but the logistics and political implications of imprisoning a former president and current presidential candidate make that unlikely. Trump is personally furious about the gag order, advisers told The Washington Post, but his campaign sees it as a political asset; any punishment would likewise feed into Trump’s narrative that he is a victim of government persecution. In New York, the judge overseeing Trump’s civil fraud trial has fined the ex-president $15,000 for repeated comments attacking a court clerk.
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End of carouselTrump’s lawyers maintain that any court-imposed limits are unconstitutional suppressions of “core political speech” because “his re-election campaign … is inextricably intertwined with this prosecution and his defense.” Moreover, they say, his 100 million social media followers have a right to hear his point of view.
Chutkan rejected that argument in her rulings, saying he could criticize the prosecution as political and unfounded without personal attacks that could intimidate people involved in the case and mislead the public.
Chutkan herself received a death threat from a Trump supporter after being attacked online by Trump, prosecutors pointed out in support of the gag order. A Trump supporter went to the home of former president Barack Obama after Trump tweeted the address. Trump’s public criticism of Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, was concerning enough that Secret Service agents protecting the vice president were notified.
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“Mr. Trump is a criminal defendant,” Chutkan said during a court hearing on the gag order. “First Amendment freedoms do not allow him to launch a pretrial smear campaign against participating government staff, their families, and foreseeable witnesses.”
She singled out Pence, saying Trump could make “statements criticizing the campaign platforms or policies of [his] current political rivals” without getting into expected testimony. Pence had made his decision not to help overturn the election results on Jan. 6 part of his campaign, but he dropped out of the race this weekend.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.
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