Donald Trump has violated a gag order in his January 6 federal election case that could land him in jail, his former lawyer Ty Cobb has said.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Sunday reimposed a ‘gag order’ that special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors had sought in the January 6 case being tried in Washington, DC.
She had suspended it for nine days after Trump’s lawyers balked at the requirements and said they were a violation of his free speech rights, and Trump was again prohibited from targeting witnesses, prosecutors, or court officials in the case.
Within hours,Trump was again going after the ‘radical left judge,’ calling her a ‘TRUE TRUMP HATER’ in posts on his Truth Social website.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has reimposed a ‘gag’ order on former President Donald Trump, who went on to attack her online
Cobb, who worked in the Trump White House during the Mueller probe in 2017 and 2018, noted that another judge, Arthur Engoron, slapped Trump with a $10,000 fine for violating a separate gag order in a New York case that prohibits him from going after court staff.
‘I think judge Chutkan prudently allowed Trump to try to persuade her to extend the gag order. She concluded on the basis of his conduct this week not to do so,’ he told CNN Tuesday night. ‘And I think she’ll come in with a much heavier penalty and ultimately I think he’ll spend a night or a weekend in jail,’ he predicted.
‘I think it’ll take that to stop him,’ Cobb concluded.
Such an unprecedented move, if the judge were to impose it, would provide yet another historic first during an election effort where the former president faces four criminal trials and 91 individual charges while leading all Republicans in primary polls.
Cobb got asked about Trump’s attacks on former attorney general Bill Barr, who could be a witness in the case, and who appeared before the House January 6 Committee, testifying that some of Trump’s election fraud claims were ‘bull****.’
‘I called Bill Barr Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN’T DO THE JOB,” Trump wrote. ‘He just didn’t want to be Impeached, which the Radical Left Lunatics were preparing to do,’ he said, having previously accused Barr of failing to push his election fraud claims out of fear.
‘I was tough on him in the White House, for good reason, so now this Moron says about me, to get even, ‘his verbal skills are limited.’ Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before. Tell that to the biggest political crowds in the history of politics, by far. Bill Barr is a LOSER!’
Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb said Trump had breached the gag order and predicted he would ‘spend a night or a weekend in jail’
Trump also fumed about the reimposition of the order and the judge. ‘RADICAL LEFT JUDGE TAKING AWAY MY RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH IN ORDER TO HELP CROOKED JOE BIDEN & HIS THIRD WORLD ELECTION INTERFERENCE SCAM. AS GOOD AS THIS SOUNDS, IT WON’T WORK!’ he wrote.
Judge Tanya Chutkan reimposed a gag order that prohibits Trump from targeting potential witnesses or court personnel
On Monday he accused Chutkan of having ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’ The judge has repeatedly told Trump’s lawyers he would treat him like any other criminal defendant.
‘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!!!’ the former president wrote.
Asked if Trump had already violated the gag order, Cobb responded: ‘Yes.’
‘It’s a simple order … it’s a short paragraph. But it prohibits him from targeting any foreseeable witness or the substance of their testimony and clearly he’s done that.
Trump attached Chutkan as a ‘radical left judge’
When weighing the order, Judge Chutkan provided more leeway on generalized attacks on the Justice Department
Trump’s lawyers have argued his First Amendment rights are being violated by the gag order. Chutkan said Trump is a criminal defendant awaiting trial subject to conditions of release
Trump has also referenced prosecutors as ‘thugs,’ language he has applied to Jack Smith in the past
Trump called the gag order ‘unthinkabler’
‘Even while it was in abeyance he did it as to Ellis, Chesebro, Powell and Meadows. And he’ll keep doing it until he provokes a penalty far greater than he’s suffered so far in the process,’ he said. He was referencing former Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, and Ken Chesebro, who all have pleaded guilty to a charge in a separate Georgia case, and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who reportedly reached an immunity deal with Smith’s prosecutors.
Trump has also been accused of witness intimidation after posting about Meadows following the ABC report that he had reached an immunity deal.
I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen [sic] 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith,” Trump wrote, in typically idiosyncratic style.
‘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.