(RepublicanReport.org) – A judge just reinstated a gag order against former President Donald Trump, barring him from targeting prosecutors and witnesses slated to testify against him in the 2020 election interference case. The judge had temporarily lifted the order, but upon review of the available evidence, she decided to reimpose the restrictions.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan initially issued the order on Monday, October 16, at the prosecution’s request. It prohibited Trump from naming specific people involved in his case on social media in an attempt to discredit or demonize them. The Associated Press states that she temporarily lifted the order on Friday, October 20, in response to the defense’s request, offering it time to prove its case — that Trump shouldn’t have any restrictions whatsoever on his public comments.
Chutkan reinstated the gag order on Sunday, October 29. She noted evidence “on the record,” according to NPR News, that Trump’s attacks have led to people suffering threats and other forms of harassment from his followers. The judge noted that the former president has refused to acknowledge those effects, and then she pointed to two separate social media posts to offer examples of what he is and what isn’t allowed to say.
The first example, in which Trump asserts that the case against him is politically motivated and insists the Biden Administration is corrupt, is perfectly fine because it doesn’t name any specific members of the prosecution team or their witnesses. The second is the GOP frontrunner’s angry response to Mark Meadows flipping on him in return for personal immunity in the case, which the judge says is not allowed because it seeks to discredit the former Trump lawyer’s potential testimony against him.
This is the second gag order Trump has received in one month. He was previously ordered not to attack court personnel in his civil fraud trial after posting negative comments about the judge’s principal clerk. He recently received a $5,000 fine for failing to remove the offending post and a $10,000 fine for violating the order when he spoke to the press and made a negative comment about the court staff.
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