A federal prosecutor has pressed the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case to impose a gagging order to curb the former president’s diatribes against likely witnesses and others, saying the restrictions would not impact his ability to campaign.
In pressing US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to impose the order, special counsel Jack Smith’s team accused the Republican of using increasingly incendiary rhetoric to try to undermine the public’s confidence in the justice system and taint the jury pool.
“We have no interest in stopping the defendant from running for office or defending his reputation, nor does our proposed order do this,” prosecutor Molly Gaston said.
The order proposal underscores the unprecedented complexities of prosecuting the Republican presidential primary front-runner, who has made the line of attack central to his campaign, and it presents the biggest test yet for Judge Chutkan, who must balance Trump’s right to defend himself publicly with the need to protect the integrity of the case.
It is the beginning of what could be an extraordinary fight over what limits can be placed on the speech of a defendant who is also running for America’s highest public office. Any gagging order Judge Chutkan imposes is likely to be challenged on appeal and may end up before the US Supreme Court, legal experts have said.
While ending the stream of Trump’s harsh language may make the case easier to manage, it could also fuel his claims of political persecution. His campaign has already seized on the proposed order in fundraising appeals, and he has falsely characterised it as an attempt to prevent him from criticising President Joe Biden.
Trump’s defence in the Washington DC case has called the gagging order request unconstitutional and a “desperate effort at censorship”.
The hearing comes on the heels of the judge overseeing Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York imposing a more limited gagging order prohibiting personal attacks against court personnel after a social media post by Trump maligned the judge’s principal clerk.
Prosecutors are asking Judge Chutkan to bar Trump and lawyers from making statements “that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case”, including inflammatory or intimidating remarks about witnesses, lawyers and other people involved in the case.
