U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily halts former President Donald Trump’s gag order amid his election interference case.
On Friday, Chutkan, who is overseeing the case against Trump in Washington, D.C., said that she was issuing the administrative stay of the gag order in order to give the parties more time to brief her on the former president’s plea to stop the order while his appeal of it plays out.
Seemingly recognizing she is on thin legal ground, Judge Chutkan stays her unprecedented gag order on Trump. For now, Judge Chutkan won't jail Trump for criticizing Mike Pence, the corrupt Mark Milley or the abusive Jack Smith. https://t.co/ZG0EKMVyUo
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) October 21, 2023
The judge added that Trump would have until the following Saturday to respond to the government’s filing and that the Department of Justice had until Wednesday to respond to his request for a longer suspension of the gag order.
This comes after Chutkan issued a gag order on the former president following a contentious hearing where Trump’s attorneys and federal prosecutors clashed over how he would be able to discuss special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution against him during his campaign.
“I understand that you have a message you want to get out,” Chutkan said at the time. “I do not need to hear any campaign rhetoric in my court.”
The order forbids anyone with access to the information being provided to Trump’s team from sharing or revealing it with outside parties, including on social media, without the court’s prior approval.
Chutkan’s order is one of many of Trump’s gag orders, thanks to his ongoing federal indictments. He also received an issue from New York State Judge Juan Merchan, which restricted him from publicly posting evidence about the alleged $130,000 payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
New York City Judge Arthur Engoron also ordered a crack on Trump’s real estate trial, issuing a directive preventing the 45th president from moving his assets without prior notification to a court-appointed monitor.
Engoron’s order requires the former president and his co-defendants to reveal all entities they possess and to provide prior notice of “any anticipated transfer of assets or liabilities to any other entities.”
However, the gag orders did not prevent Trump from making disparaging comments about Washington, D.C., where the trial is scheduled to take place next year.
