Judge Chutkan reinstated restrictions on Trump's public statements in election interference trial
A federal judge reinstated a narrow gag order on Sunday preventing former President Trump from making public remarks that target prosecutors, potential witnesses or staff of the court.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan – who is overseeing the federal case relating to efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election – posted the decision on the public court docket on Sunday, but her reasoning was not immediately available because of a reported “glitch” in the computer system. The contours of the reinstated gag order were not available either.
Chutkan’s decision to bar Trump from making certain public statements comes nine days after she temporarily lifted the gag order to allow for Trump and his legal team to appeal the ruling. The gag order was first imposed on Oct. 16.
The dispute between Trump’s legal team and the Justice Department (DOJ) about the legality of the gag order has been tense and has gone through several rounds of arguments.
Trump’s team has argued the gag order is a violation of Trump’s First Amendment rights and that it also comes just as his campaign for president kicks into high gear.
Ultimately, Chutkan made her decision on Sunday after prosecutors presented evidence that Trump had targeted witnesses in recent social media posts.
In an Oct. 25 court filing, prosecutors cited several posts and said, “based on the defendant’s recent social media posts targeting a known witness in this case in an attempt to influence and intimidate him, the Court should lift the administrative stay and modify the defendant’s conditions of release to prevent such harmful and prejudicial conduct.”
In a social-media post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, Trump appeared to respond to the reinstatement of the gag order, blaming the decision on the Biden administration and calling the move unconstitutional.
“The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech. NOT CONSTITUTIONAL! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN…,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s legal team has said they would seek an emergency stay of the order.
Trump, this past week, was fined $10,000 in a civil fraud trial in New York after the judge determined he violated a separate gag order.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.