WASHINGTON — A federal judge will hear arguments on Monday about whether former President Donald Trump should be subject to a limited gag order ahead of his March 2024 federal election interference trial.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the federal election interference case against Trump in August, is seeking a narrow gag order against Trump to “protect the integrity of the trial and the jury pool.” Trump, they say, wants “special treatment, asserting that because he is a political candidate, he should have free rein to publicly intimidate witnesses and malign the Court, citizens of this District, and prosecutors.” But in this case, they wrote, Trump should be treated like any criminal defendant.
Trump’s team has argued that the proposed gag order is politically motivated.
“At bottom, the Proposed Gag Order is nothing more than an obvious attempt by the Biden Administration to unlawfully silence its most prominent political opponent, who has now taken a commanding lead in the polls,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a brief filed last month.
The parties, minus Trump, are appearing before U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan at a hearing in Washington, D.C. starting at 10 a.m.
Trump’s team sought to delay the trial until 2026, and Smith’s team wanted jury selection in the case to begin this year, but Chutkan set a trial date for March 4, 2024, the day before “Super Tuesday,” when primary voters in several states cast their ballots.
Chutkan, who has received threats in connection with her oversight of the case, previously warned Trump about talking about the case in a way that could cause witness intimidation or impact the proceedings.
“Mr. Trump, like every American, has a First Amendment right to free speech,” Chutkan said. ‘But that right is not absolute.”
Trump, Chutkan said at an August hearing, “is a criminal defendant,” and would “have restrictions like every other defendant.” Trump’s defense, she said, “is supposed to happen in this courtroom, not on the internet. And to the extent your client wants to make statements on the internet, they always have to yield to witness security and witness safety.”
In a separate civil trial in New York, a judge ordered Trump to delete a disparaging post about a member of the judge’s staff.
“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I won’t tolerate it,” said Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the New York attorney general’s fraud lawsuit against Trump, his company, and his two adult sons. “Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member of my staff.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
