Former President Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court to lift a gag order restricting his speech about those involved in the case accusing him of scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order on October 16 at the Justice Department’s request and reinstated it Sunday.
The order prohibited Trump from targeting Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting his case or witnesses who might be called to testify about his efforts to upend his election loss.
Trump said the judge has an ‘incurable case of derangement syndrome’ and insists indictments against him should have been postponed until after his campaign after he was hit with a gag order.
Trump’s lawyers say they will seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court if the appeals court denies his request, arguing that the gag order violates Trump’s First Amendment rights and those of ‘over 100 million Americans who listen to him.’
Former President Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court to lift a gag order restricting his speech about those involved in the case accusing him of scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss
‘The prosecution´s request for a Gag Order bristles with hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint and his relentless criticism of the government – including of the prosecution itself,’ Trump’s lawyers wrote in court papers.
‘The Gag Order embodies this unconstitutional hostility to President Trump´s viewpoint.’
Chutkan temporarily lifted it on October 20 after Trump’s lawyers appealed, arguing that the gag order was vaguely worded, unmanageable and unnecessary.
Enforcing the gag orders is proving complicated.
Trump has twice run afoul of a narrow gag order placed on him by the Judge Arthur Engoron, overseeing his civil fraud trial in New York, and has been fined a total of $15,000.
Engoron has warned of harsher fines, contempt of court and possible imprisonment.
‘This court is way beyond the ‘warning’ stage,’ Justice Engoron wrote last week when he levied the first $5,000 punishment, which he called ‘nominal.’
Engoron is considered likely to try every option before jail, which would be a nightmare from a logistical and political perspective.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order on October 16 at the Justice Department’s request and reinstated it Sunday
Trump’s lawyers say they will seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court if the appeals court denies his request, arguing that the gag order violates Trump’s First Amendment rights and those of ‘over 100 million Americans who listen to him’
‘The prosecution´s request for a Gag Order bristles with hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint and his relentless criticism of the government – including of the prosecution itself,’ Trump’s lawyers wrote in court papers
The former president targeted Chutkan and called her a ‘Trump hater’ in a rant on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday morning vowing to appeal and warning Joe Biden he will be also be indicted ‘one day’
He also claimed all the criminal cases against him had been deliberately started to coincide with his campaign’s start and asked why prosecutors waited three years to charge him.
‘The Obama appointed Federal Judge in D.C, a TRUE TRUMP HATER, is incapable of giving me a fair trial. Her Hatred of President DONALD J. TRUMP is so great that she has been diagnosed with a major and incurable, case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!!!,’ Trump wrote.
‘These highly political (All started by Crooked Joe Biden!) Lawsuits and Indictments shouldn’t be allowed to start until AFTER THE ELECTION IS OVER! Our Founding Fathers are looking down at Biden with scorn!’ he added.
‘If they started the highly political Biden Indictments 3 years ago, everything would now be finished. THEY WAITED UNTIL MY CAMPAIGN BEGAN!’
Donald Trump, pictured on Sunday at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, has had a gag order placed on him by the judge overseeing his January 6 case in Washington DC
The Washington gag order is separate to one imposed by the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial in New York City.
Trump on Sunday reacted with fury to Chutkan’s ruling.
‘The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech,’ he wrote on Truth Social.
‘NOT CONSTITUTIONAL!’
Trump in the past has called Special Counsel Jack Smith a ‘deranged lunatic’ and a ‘thug,’ among other insults.
Trump is facing four criminal cases and has made disparaging comments about prosecutors in each of them, as well as against the New York state attorney general who brought civil fraud charges against him.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to interfere unlawfully in the counting of votes and block the congressional certification of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.