Judge imposes limited gag order on Trump
By Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage
WASHINGTON — A judge imposed a limited gag order on former President Donald Trump on Monday (16), restricting Trump from making public statements attacking the witnesses, prosecutors or court staff involved in the federal criminal case in which he stands accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
But the narrowly tailored order by the judge, Tanya Chutkan, left Trump free as he pursues his presidential campaign to continue disparaging the Justice Department, President Joe Biden and other political adversaries so long as the remarks are not directly connected to the case.
The judge did not immediately address the question of how she will enforce her gag order. She merely said she would assess any consequences for Trump if and when he violates it.
Chutkan imposed the gag order at the end of a two-hour hearing in US District Court in Washington, which was one of the most contentious public proceedings to have arisen so far in any of the criminal cases Trump is facing.
Gag orders limiting what trial participants can say outside court are not uncommon. But Trump’s status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and his decision to portray the gag order request as part of an effort by the Biden administration to stifle a political rival, made this request by prosecutors especially complex.
At the hearing, Trump’s legal team and prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith presented two starkly divergent visions of the election interference case. Trump’s lawyers sought to characterize the election interference prosecution as a political vendetta against Trump by Biden, his chief opponent.
Chutkan said she saw the case like any other proceeding she has handled and Trump like any other criminal defendant. “Politics stops at this courtroom,” said the judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.
Much of the hearing was given over to sparring between Chutkan and John F. Lauro, a lawyer for Trump. Cutting Lauro off several times — and even laughing aloud at him once — Chutkan staked out a position seeking to protect the witnesses and prosecutors in the case from being threatened or harassed, and to keep Trump’s bullying remarks from spiralling into violence.
Trump was placed under a very limited gag order this month by the New York state judge overseeing his civil trial in New York City, where he is accused of inflating the value of his properties. That order restricts Trump from speaking about any people who work on the judge’s staff.
-New York Times
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