October 18, 2023

Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a limited gag order on Trump yesterday, restricting him from making public statements attacking the witnesses and specific prosecutors or court staff members involved in the federal case about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Via the New York Times:

Mr. Trump’s free speech rights do not permit him “to launch a pretrial smear campaign” against those people, said the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan.

“No other defendant would be allowed to do so,” Judge Chutkan added, “and I’m not going to allow it in this case.”

But the narrowly tailored order explicitly left Mr. Trump free as he pursues his presidential campaign to continue disparaging the Justice Department and President Biden. It even allowed him to assert that he believed his criminal prosecution was politically motivated. Judge Chutkan apparently left Mr. Trump leeway to attack her as well.

Again: Trump would love to go to jail! Would that really be a punishment? The best thing would be house arrest with an ankle bracelet, with no computer or cell phone. We can dream, can't we?

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