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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign event at the Dallas County Fairgrounds on 16 October 2023 in Adel, Iowa.
Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP
- A federal judge has barred
former US President Donald Trump from targeting prosecutors, court staff and
potential witnesses involved in his criminal case - The judge cited disparaging social media posts
from Trump and said she would not allow him to “launch a pretrial smear
campaign” against those involved in the case. - The order prevents Trump from personally
targeting Special Counsel Jack Smith, prosecutors working with him, court
staff, and discussing potential witnesses.
A federal judge on Monday barred Donald Trump from targeting US
prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses involved in a criminal case
accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, pointing to disparaging
social media posts from Trump, said she would not allow the former US
president, who has pleaded not guilty, to “launch a pretrial smear
campaign” against people involved in the case.
“No other criminal defendant would be allowed to do so, and I’m not
going to allow it in this case,” Chutkan said as she issued the order.
A Trump campaign spokesperson called the order “an absolute
abomination.”
The order bars Trump, frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination,
and attorneys in the case from personally targeting Special Counsel Jack Smith,
prosecutors working with him and court staff. It also prevents Trump from
discussing potential witnesses as relates to their testimony at trial.
The ruling followed a two-hour hearing where the judge grilled a Trump
lawyer about recent social media posts in which Trump referred to Smith as a “thug”
and the city of Washington as a “filthy crime-ridden embarrassment”
and suggested former top US General Mark Milley committed an offence that would
have once warranted death.
Chutkan said:
This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses. It’s about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice.
Trump lawyer John Lauro opposed any request to rein in Trump’s statements,
arguing that it would amount to censorship during a presidential campaign. He
said at the hearing that Trump would immediately appeal any order limiting his
public statements.
Trump has successfully used the many legal threats he faces to raise money
for his campaign and his political operation sought to capitalize on Monday’s
hearing by arguing that the gag order request would silence his political
movement.
Prosecutors sought a limited gag order that would bar certain statements
from Trump during the case.
The judge said she would allow Trump to make critical statements about the
US Justice Department and that denounce the prosecution as politically
motivated.
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Lauro said Trump was responding to “oppression” from the Justice
Department and “has a history of using forceful language and creative
language to draw attention to the problems of this country.”
Trump’s trial is due to begin in five months. He is charged with
conspiring to interfere in the counting of votes and block the certification of
the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Molly Gaston, a prosecutor working with Smith, said the order was
necessary to prevent Trump from trying the case “in the court of public
opinion.”
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