Judge Reinstates Gag Order Against Trump In Federal Election Case | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Daniel Chaitin.

    The judge presiding over special counsel Jack Smith's 2020 election case reinstated a gag order against former President Donald Trump on Sunday night.

    U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, lifted her temporary stay after Trump publicly took aim at Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff who is reportedly cooperating with the special counsel.

    "As this court has explained, the First Amendment rights of participants in criminal proceedings must yield, when necessary, to the orderly administration of justice," Chutkan said, adding later, "And contrary to Defendant's argument, the right to a fair trial is not his alone, but belongs also to the government and the public."

    Chutkan issued a narrow gag order against Trump earlier this month, restricting him from chastising prosecutors, court staff, and potential witnesses. The judge temporarily lifted the gag order at the request of Trump's lawyers while they pursued an appeal.

    But prosecutors soon urged her to reinstate the order, saying Trump went back to the sort of "targeting" it would prevent. As examples, the filing cited an "unmistakable and threatening message" on social media about Meadows possibly testifying in exchange for immunity against prosecution and comments he made about his former chief of staff to reporters in New York. Trump also called Smith "deranged."

    In her new opinion, Chutkan rejected claims by the defendant that her order was "unconstitutionally vague" and determined that appeals for "broad" First Amendment rights were outweighed by the need to "protect the integrity" of the proceedings. Beyond restoring the stay, the judge also denied Trump's motion for a long-term stay of the gag order.

    With a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump vowed to appeal while accusing Chutkan of bias and saying the judge should have recused herself from the case. "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!" Trump said.

    Trump's campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the judge's order amounts to "election interference."

    "The American people have the right to hear from President Trump, the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election, and no court or prosecutor can be allowed to commit election interference," Cheung said in a Monday statement. "President Trump is Constitutionally entitled to speak the truth to all Americans as he fights these hoaxes and as he marches on to defeat Crooked Joe Biden and Radical Democrats. The gag order in question is so egregious, that even the ACLU agrees that it has to go. President Trump will never stop fighting for our Democracy and our Constitution."

    Trump is facing four criminal cases, two of which are being spearheaded by Smith: the one in which Trump is accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and another focused on the former president's handling of classified documents. Trump is also contending civil litigation. A judge dealt Trump a gag order in a New York fraud trial, which has already led to two violation fines - the most recent costing $10,000.

    Throughout the whirlwind legal battles, Trump has broadly denied wrongdoing, pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces, and claims that politically motivated prosecutors are conducting a "witch hunt" against him.

    All the while, Trump is running a 2024 campaign, potentially paving the way to a 2020 rematch against President Joe Biden. Trump's legal defense effort has sapped up a great deal of resources as well as media attention, but he is leading GOP polls heading into the primary season.

poll#178

Considering the current overwhelming obstacles inflicting stress upon America's working class: rampant inflation; energy insecurity; supply chain turmoil; banking failures; foreign policy disasters; government corruption; (DEI) Diversity Equity Inclusion narrative, with WOKE extremes practiced; Climate Change ideology; intractable crime wave in Leftist cities; wide open border by executive design; a permanently discredited Legacy Media; failed or failing education industry, just to name a few of the many: Who should Americans blame?

  Donald J. Trump

  Joseph R. Biden

  Leftist controlled Congress for the last 4 years.

  Bloated, incompetent bureaucracy weaponized and poorly managed

  The electorate, US, for putting these fools in elected office that utterly fail

223 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#201

Considering what real news is available for all to witness, and in great specificity, should one pursue what is true outside of the channeled realm of the corrupt corporate /legacy media, and: Is Institutionalized Corruption real, and is it a hindrance to sustaining our Constitutional Republic now, and for future generations of American citizens?

  Yes

  No

  Not sure

301 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#180

Now that the public is allowed to know the truth regarding the Hunter Biden Laptop Scandal, after more that 2 1/2 years of deception by the corrupt Corporate Media Kabal, propropagandidats all, and the discredited Deep State, we have NOW learned that the infamous laptop is far less about the Biden Boy's fetish for pornography, narcotics and Russian whores, and far more about Hunter's pivotal role in the Biden Crime Syndicate's selling of deep access to our foreign adversaries, and to what extent it has compromised our national security: What is your opinion about this possible coordinated Treason?

  It is imperative that we know the truth of what may be the greatest scandal in our Republic's history, and all aforementioned parties prosecuted for their crimes against the People.

  Currently, our Two Tiered Justice System is constructed to protect all Democratic Socialists, their corrupt "Journalist" spokes-sheople, and their Deep State enablers ... so why bother.

  It is Donald Trump's fault.

  How can we be assured that the "Laptop" is real? Would NOT our standard journalists have investigated this issue thoroughly nearly 3 years ago if it was real?

463 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?