Special Counsel Seeking Gag Order on Trump in Election Case - The New York Times

In a memorandum of law the Special Counsel Jack Smith details the furious rants by the former President - disparaging the judge and the citizens of the District of Columbia from whom will be drawn the jurors in his March 2024 trial for the alleged crime of conspiracy to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power and deprive voters of the right to have their votes counted.  

The Government

seeks a narrow, well-defined restriction that is targeted at extrajudicial statements that present a serious and substantial danger of materially prejudicing this case. The Government’s proposed order specifies that such statements would include (a) statements regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses; and (b) statements about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating. 

A similar order addressed to the defendants lead counsel has been effective. The Special Counsel proposes extending those constraints to the defendant himself:  The Order would be derived from "

Local Criminal Rule 57.7(b), which prohibits attorneys from releasing public extrajudicial statements regarding, among other things, “the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses” and the “merits of the case or the evidence in the case.” 

- GWC 9/15/2023 

Special Counsel Seeking Gag Order on Trump in Election Case - The New York Times

Prosecutors have asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to curb statements from the former president that could intimidate witnesses, influence potential jurors or lead to harassment of others in the case.

By Alan Feuer

Prosecutors have asked the judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s federal indictment on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election to impose “a narrowly tailored” gag order on him, citing his “near-daily” social media attacks on people involved in the case, according to court papers released on Friday.

The request to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of Federal District Court in Washington, who has herself been the subject of some of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults, brought to a head the simmering issue of the former president’s online statements.

In a 19-page motion, prosecutors said that some of the people Mr. Trump has gone after on social media — including the special counsel, Jack Smith, who has filed two indictments against him — have experienced subsequent threats from others. Mr. Trump’s statements, they said, could also affect witnesses and the potential jury pool for the trial, which is scheduled to take place in Washington starting in March.

“Since the indictment in this case, the defendant has spread disparaging and inflammatory public posts on Truth Social on a near-daily basis regarding the citizens of the District of Columbia, the court, prosecutors and prospective witnesses,” federal prosecutors wrote.

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