Trump has described the judge as a “fraud” in public comments and social media posts.
Washington:
The federal judge scheduled to preside over Donald Trump’s trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 US election imposed a partial gag order on the former president on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Trump not to attack prosecutors, court staff or potential witnesses ahead of the historic trial scheduled to begin in Washington in March 2024.
Chutkan’s ruling came after special counsel Jack Smith, a frequent target of Trump’s vitriol, filed a motion arguing that the former president’s inflammatory rhetoric threatened to undermine his election subversion trial.
Trump has described Chutkan in public comments and social media posts as a “fraud” and “Trump-hating judge,” Smith’s office as a “team of thugs” and Washington as a “filthy and crime-ridden” city with a population ‘. more than 95% anti-Trump.”
John Lauro, a lawyer for Trump, argued against a silence order during a two-hour hearing in federal court on Monday, claiming it would violate Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech.
“The Biden administration is trying to censor a political candidate in the middle of a campaign,” Lauro said, in a reference to Trump’s bid to return to the White House in the 2024 presidential election.
“You’re trying to suppress political speech,” Lauro said.
Chutkan pushed back, saying Trump’s presidential candidacy doesn’t give him “carte blanche to smear public officials who are just doing their jobs.”
“In what world is it permissible for a suspect to attack the family of an accuser?” she asked.
– No trial delay –
Shortly before the hearing began, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the “TRUMP GAG ORDER the CORRUPT Biden Administration is trying to obtain is totally unconstitutional!”
In Truth Social comments on Sunday, he lashed out at Smith, calling him a “leaky, corrupt and deranged prosecutor,” and disparaged Chutkan as a “highly partisan Obama-appointed judge.”
Trump said a gag order would make it “impossible for me to criticize those who are being silenced, namely Crooked Joe Biden.”
“They want to take away my First Amendment rights and my ability to both campaign and defend myself,” he said. “In other words, they want to cheat and interfere in the 2024 presidential election.”
Chutkan on Monday also rejected a renewed effort by Trump’s lawyers to delay the trial until after the November 2024 election, which will likely see a rematch between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
“This process will not yield to the election cycle,” Chutkan said.
Trump was indicted for attempting to change the results of the 2020 US election in a concerted effort that led to his supporters’ violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He is also accused of trying to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims that he won the November 2020 presidential election.
Chutkan has set March 4, 2024 as the start date for the trial, which could disrupt Trump’s campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
