A federal judge on Monday issued a gag order on former President Donald Trump, limiting what he can say about special counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution into his alleged attempt to subvert in the 2020 presidential election.

The order restricts Trump’s ability to publicly target court personnel, potential witnesses, or the special counsel and his staff. The order did not impose restrictions on disparaging comments about Washington, DC, – where the jury will take place – or certain comments about the Justice Department at large, both of which the government requested.

“This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said. “This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice.”

“His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their jobs,” the judge added.

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Time will tell - this judge doesn’t seem to lack the guts to do so if necessary. But my understanding is that jail time is a ‘last resort’ after fines and other punishments. I’m under no delusion that Trump will be thrown in Jail in the near future.

        • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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          10 months ago

          She’s threatened to move up the trial date if he violates the order as a way of limiting the effect his words can have on court officers and potential witnesses. This would be terrible for him since his whole strategy is to delay until after the election when he believes he will become president again and can make it all go away.

          I really like Judge Chutkan so far.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        10 months ago

        He is being given a rope, it’s his choice whether he hangs himself with it. You can’t go straight to throwing him in prison you at least have to demonstrate ill intent.

        I wouldn’t worry, he will definitely violate these terms, if you gave Donald Trump a button that said do not press under any circumstances, pressing this button will result in the destruction of the universe he’d press it before you could finish reading the sign. The man has no self-control.

  • mateomaui@reddthat.com
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    10 months ago

    “He does not have the right to say and do exactly what he pleases. Do you agree with that?” she asked Trump attorney John Lauro, who responded: “100%.”

    oooooooo someone is getting yelled at today

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    10 months ago

    She added: “If the message Mr. Trump wants to express is ‘my prosecution is politically motivated,’” he can do so without using “highly charged language.”

    That hurts. That would be sentences with words of four and five syllables! He will fail to pronounce them, or his followers won’t understand them. Win-Win.

    I wonder what pictures his “speech writers” will draw on his cue cards for a sentence like that ;-)

    • Seagull@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      Trump will soon be telling his cult that the judge said “‘my prosecution is politically motivated”.

  • N0body@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    I doubt Trump will be able to resist attacking Jack Smith, but I’m 100% certain he’s going to violate the rule against targeting “potential witnesses.” That’s a very, very long list of people who are targeted regularly.

    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      My bet is that he’ll screw up on Pence. It’s a narrow target at Pence and it’s functionally the only thing he can call him out on.

      Other than Pence would lose a personality contest to Stephen Harper.

  • nichtsowichtig@feddit.de
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    10 months ago

    hello, I’m not a native english speaker and I know two distinct meaning of the word “gag” and neither of them make sense in this context. so what does “gag order” mean?

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      10 months ago

      I’m guessing the 2 uses you already know are ‘joke’ and ‘to retch/nearly vomit’?

      Another meaning of ‘gag’ is to physically tie something around their mouth to stop them from speaking (like in films when people get material or tape in their mouths to muffle their cries for help in a kidnap scene? That material would be the ‘gag’)

      Obviously in this instance it’s not a literal gag, although I’m sure there’s plenty of people who wish it could be. A ‘gagging order’ is a metaphor for not being able to speak about things

    • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Think of it as a “you cannot talk about something” order. So a gag is something put in a person’s mouth to keep them from talking. So he is not allowed to talk about a specific subject (in this case parts of the case specifically things he has said that could be considered threatening or attempting to influence witnesses or jurors) so he has been “gaged”

      And in case you are wondering how the fuck you get him to shut up. If he violates the order he can be “held in contempt of court” which means that you were legally told to do something and you didn’t. It can be punished with fines and/or jail time. Which may not deter him.

  • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    History has proven that he does. Gag orders don’t do shit to him.

    • nfh@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It all depends what the judge is willing to do about violations. If they really threaten the administration of justice, fines are probably the first step, but imprisonment is on the table though it seems unlikely to go that far. A new judge may treat these differently, or take previous gag order violations into account.

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    10 months ago

    For a voter base that believes the other side is using all means including DOJ to get put down their candidate. it is going to energize even those who are on the fence to jump to the republican side

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    10 months ago

    The fact that this guy hasn’t been assassinated shows how bullshit Americans are and how they don’t really stand for anything but a mockery of humanity.

    Let’s stand around and watch other people pretend they’re doing the work and putting in the effort. They are just helping themselves to power.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      This site is surprisingly tolerant of advocating murder. Thought it was supposed to be the friendly alternative to reddit. Not comments in nearly every big thread pushing for whose lives to end with violence.