Special Counsel Jack Smith asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to impose a strict federal gag order on Trump and send him to jail if he talks about any witnesses.
In August Trump was hit with 4 counts in Jack Smith’s January 6 case up in DC: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Jack Smith is using the DC J6 case to gag Trump.
The special counsel’s prosecutors accused Trump of attempting to “prejudice the jury pool through disparaging and inflammatory attacks on the citizens of this District, the Court, prosecutors, and prospective witnesses.”
Last Friday Judge Chutkan agreed to temporarily pause her own gag order in the DOJ’s January 6 case while Trump and Jack Smith submit appeal briefs.
Judge Tanya Chutkan last Monday imposed a gag order on Trump. According to Chutkan’s gag order, Trump cannot criticize Special Counsel Jack Smith or any of his prosecutors – even if Trump is telling the truth.
The gag order will prevent Trump from criticizing Jack Smith or any of his prosecutors or staffers, any of the Court’s staff or supporting personnel or any ‘witnesses.’
Jack Smith can leak and lie about Trump – and threaten witnesses – but Trump cannot defend himself otherwise he will be violating Chutkan’s unconstitutional gag order.
In a motion filed late Wednesday evening, Jack Smith asked Judge Chutkan to reimpose her gag order against Trump and consider stricter sanctions, including jail time, if he talks about any of the witnesses.
Jack Smith referred to Trump’s remarks on Mark Meadows after ABC News falsely claimed Trump’s former Chief of Staff made a deal with the DOJ and flipped.
“Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation. I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post this week.
Mark Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger told NBC News and CBS News that ABC’s report is “largely inaccurate.”
“I told ABC that their story was largely inaccurate. People will have to judge for themselves the decision to run it anyway,” Terwilliger told the outlets.
Jack Smith is now asking Judge Chutkan to impose stricter sanctions. Trump’s legal team has until Saturday to file a reply.
Excerpt from The Washington Post:
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal case against Trump in D.C., issued a limited gag order against the former president last week, but she temporarily suspended the order while she considered further argument on the matter.
In a lengthy filing, Smith’s office argued she should reinstate the gag order, particularly in light of a social media post this week in which Trump talked about his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who is a likely witness in the pending trial.
Without the court’s order, prosecutors wrote, there is an “immediate risk” that witnesses’ testimony “could be influenced or deterred by the defendant’s documented pattern of targeting.”
Notably, the filing urged Chutkan to “modify the defendant’s conditions of release by making compliance with the Order a condition or by clarifying that the existing condition barring communication with witnesses about the facts of the case includes indirect messages to witnesses made publicly on social media or in speeches.”
Such a modification, the prosecutors argue, would give Chutkan “compliance measures available under 18 U.S.C. § 3148 in addition to those available as a contempt penalty for violating the Order.” The compliance measures listed in that part of the law are “a revocation of release, an order of detention, and a prosecution for contempt of court.”