10/30/2023

Judge Reimposes Restrictions on Trump’s Speech in Jan. 6 Case

The original gag order was suspended for nine days

A federal judge has reimposed a gag order on former president Donald Trump’s public statements in advance of his trial on charges of conspiring to subvert the results of the 2020 election.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan put back in place Sunday evening were ones she had lifted nine days earlier to give Trump and U.S. prosecutors more time to argue whether the gag was unconstitutional, as attorneys for the former president had claimed. Trump can now ask a higher court for an emergency stay pending appeal, but in the meantime he is bound by Chutkan's limits.

"The First Amendment rights of participants in criminal proceedings must yield, when necessary, to the orderly administration of justice," Chutkan wrote Sunday, adding that Trump offered nothing that made his appeal seem likely to succeed. She said Trump "simply fails to acknowledge... evidence" that his public statements are often followed by harassment and threats against the people he singles out.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.