The judge in Donald Trump’s federal election interference case has reinstated a gag order on the former president.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a gag order in the case back in early October, banning Mr Trump from making statements about prosecutors, court personnel and potential witnesses in the case.
But, the order was briefly put on pause on 20 October as Mr Trump’s attorneys appealed the decision.
Last week, Special counsel Jack Smith’s team urged the judge to lift the stay and reinforce the ban, after Mr Trump was fined $10,000 for breaking a gag order in his separate civil fraud case in New York.
On Sunday evening, Judge Chutkan sided with Mr Smith’s team and reinstated the ruling.
Mr Trump immediately lashed out on Truth Social at the ruling, claiming yet again that it is a violation of his First Amendment rights to free speech.
“The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech. NOT CONSTITUTIONAL! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN…” he wrote on Sunday night.
In a follow-up post, he added: “I have just learned that the very Biased, Trump Hating Judge in D.C., who should have RECUSED herself due to her blatant and open loathing of your favorite President, ME, has reimposed a GAG ORDER which will put me at a disadvantage against my prosecutorial and political opponents. This order, according to many legal scholars, is unthinkable!
“It illegally and unconstitutionally takes away my First Amendment Right of Free Speech, in the middle of my campaign for President, where I am leading against BOTH Parties in the Polls.
“Few can believe this is happening, but I will appeal. How can they tell the leading candidate that he, and only he, is seriously restricted from campaigning in a free and open manner? It will not stand!”
He is currently under gag orders in both the federal January 6 case and a separate civil case in New York after he has repeatedly lashed out at judges, prosecutors, potential witnesses and court staff involved in his growing legal woes.
Mr Trump is charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election, in a bid to sabotage the vote of the American people.
A grand jury, which spent months hearing evidence in Mr Smith’s investigation, returned a federal indictment in August hitting him with federal charges.
The Justice Department alleges that Mr Trump and his circle of co-conspirators knew that he had lost the election but launched a multi-prong conspiracy to do everything they could to enable him to cling to power.
This included spreading “knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendant’s opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant”, the indictment states.
Mr Trump and his allies also allegedly plotted to send slates of fake electors to seven “targeted states” of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which President Joe Biden had won – to get them to falsely certify the election for Mr Trump.
The indictment also alleges Mr Trump tried to use the DOJ to “conduct sham election crime investigations”, sending letters to the seven states claiming that “significant concerns” had been found in the elections in those states.
As well as the false claims about the election being stolen from Mr Trump, the scheme also involved pushing false claims that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to alter the results – and pushing Mr Pence to “fraudulently alter the election results”.
When Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in a violent attack that ended with five deaths, Mr Trump and his co-conspirators “exploited” the incident by “redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims,” the indictment claims.
The case is one of four criminal cases – one in New York, one in Georgia and two federal – Mr Trump is facing as he continues to seek the Republican nomination in 2024.
