The US Justice Department has asked a federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former president Donald Trump in Washington to step in after he released a post online that appeared to promise revenge on anyone who goes after him.
Prosecutors asked US District Court judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a protective order in the case a day after Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and block the peaceful transition of power.
The order — which is different from a so-called gag order — would limit what information Mr Trump and his legal team could share publicly about the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
On Saturday, Judge Chutkan gave Mr Trump’s legal team until 5pm on Monday to respond to the government’s request.
Mr Trump’s legal team, which has indicated he would look to slow the case down despite prosecutors’ pledge of a speedy trial, then filed a request to extend the response deadline to Thursday and to hold a hearing on the matter.
The former president’s lawyers wrote: “Defendant is prepared to confer in good faith regarding an appropriate protective order and hopes the government will accept his invitation to do so.”
They criticised prosecutors for filing their proposal without giving the two sides enough time to discuss.
Such protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said it is “particularly important in this case” because Mr Trump has posted on social media about “witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him”.
Prosecutors pointed specifically to a post on Mr Trump’s Truth Social platform from earlier on Friday in which Mr Trump wrote, in all capital letters: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”
Prosecutors said they are ready to hand over a “substantial” amount of evidence — “much of which includes sensitive and confidential information” — to Mr Trump’s legal team.
They told the judge that if Mr Trump were to begin posting about grand jury transcripts or other evidence provided by the Justice Department, it could have a “harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case”.
Prosecutors’ proposed protective order seeks to prevent Mr Trump and his lawyers from disclosing materials provided by the government to anyone other than people on his legal team, possible witnesses, the witnesses’ lawyers or others approved by the court.
It would put stricter limits on “sensitive materials”, which would include grand jury witness testimony and materials obtained through sealed search warrants.
A spokesperson for Mr Trump said in an emailed statement that the former president’s post “is the definition of political speech”, and was made in response to “dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs”.
The indictment unsealed this week accuses Mr Trump of brazenly conspiring with allies to spread falsehoods and concoct schemes intended to overturn his election loss to US president Joe Biden as his legal challenges floundered in court.
The indictment chronicles how Mr Trump and his Republican allies, in what Mr Smith described as an attack on a “bedrock function of the US government”, repeatedly lied about the results in the two months after he lost the election and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.
Mr Trump faces charges including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of Mr Biden’s electoral victory.
It is the third criminal case brought this year against the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
But it is the first case to try to hold Mr Trump responsible for his efforts to remain in power during the chaotic weeks between his election loss and the attack by his supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
After his court appearance on Thursday before a magistrate judge, Mr Trump characterised the case as a “persecution” designed to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign.
His legal team has described it as an attack on his right to free speech and his right to challenge an election that he believed had been stolen.
Mr Smith has said prosecutors will seek a “speedy trial” against Mr Trump in the election case.
Judge Chutkan has ordered the government to file a brief by Thursday proposing a trial date. The first court hearing in front of Ms Chutkan is scheduled for August 28th.
Mr Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in March in the New York case stemming from hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign and in May in the federal case in Florida stemming from classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
