The same judge putting nonviolent J6 defendants in gulags while hissing her displeasure that Donald Trump “remains free to this day,” decided Monday that she can shut him up while on the 2024 campaign trail. Gag orders are sometimes placed on cases, but this has never happened to a presidential candidate in the annals of the criminal justice.
Trump reacted on his Truth Social account by putting up economic tables comparing his presidency to Joe Biden’s policies.
The hearing in Judge Tanya S. Chutkan’s D.C. U.S. District Courtroom over whether to at least partially gag Donald Trump was at times contentious and at other times surreal and Kafkaesque. Chutkan ruled that Trump could not post or repost “attacks against Special Counsel, staff, court staff or personnel” as well as prohibited statements about witnesses or expert witnesses.
The hearing was part of one of two cases Special Counsel Jack Smith brought against Trump for calling the 2020 election “stolen” and for somehow instigating the January 6 incursion into the Capitol Building, despite evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. And now Judge Chutkan, an Obama appointee who has dripping antipathy for Donald Trump, will decide if the former president and current presidential candidate can speak at will about the gang-up on him by the intelligence community, the Department of Justice, the Biden Administration, and the Biden campaign to knock him out of contention for the White House.
Trump lawyer Liz Harrington wondered, “Let’s see what happens on Monday in Judge Chutkan’s courtroom. Will America survive, or not?”
Ruling? Not.
The Trump spokeswoman amplified a Truth Social post of Trump’s characterizing Special Counsel Jack Smith as “crooked and deranged.” Trump again called for the judge to recuse herself because she’s so demonstrably biased against the former president.
“Let’s see what happens on Monday in Judge Chutkan’s courtroom. Will America survive, or not?” pic.twitter.com/izOrznixSi
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) October 16, 2023
“Today’s decision is an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy by Crooked Joe Biden, who was granted the right to muzzle his political opponent, the leading candidate for the Presidency in 2024… pic.twitter.com/vAYBT3Eqcw
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) October 16, 2023
The gang-up on Trump appears to be a continuation of the Democrats’ ongoing lawfare against the Republican, which has reached Kafkaesque proportions, to the point that the Chutkan took specific Trump quotes about Jack Smith and other political figures, including William Barr, the former president’s attorney general, asking a hypothetical question, if Trump should be able to post, “Bill Barr is a slimy lawyer.”
Lauro injected a little legal humor into the colloquy, saying he’s “‘not going to say truth is a defense’ but adds he is [a] public fig[ure] and won’t be intimidated.”
Judge Chutkan now grilling Trump lawyer John Lauro on hypothetical statements she's drawn up. Q4 was if "Bill Barr is a slimy liar" — should Trump be permitted to post that? Lauro says "not going to say truth is a defense" but adds he is public fig and won't be intimidated
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) October 16, 2023
Lauro asked the judge to obviate the problem and hold off on the trial until after the election. Reporter Hugo Lowell of The Guardian summed it up, “Trump lawyer John Lauro tells Judge Chutkan that public officials like AG Barr should be allowed [to] be criticized, but ‘let’s have this trial after the election to avoid this problem.'”
Judge Chutkan asked “Lauro why Trump has to call [the] prosecutor a ‘thug’ to advance [the] point that this [is] politically motivated? Lauro says what are you supposed to do in [the] face of oppression? Chutkan: ‘let’s tone this down.'” Lauro bristled, “If your honor wants to censor my speech…”
Judge Chutkan asks Trump lawyer John Lauro why Trump has to call prosecutor a "thug" to advance point that this politically motivated? Lauro says what are you supposed to do in face of oppression? Chutkan: "let's tone this down" Lauro: "If your honor wants to censor my speech"
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) October 16, 2023
Indeed, she wants to silence Trump’s and his lawyers’ speech because she, like her fellow Democrats, thinks he’s the human version of an atom bomb to their progressive policies.
Chutkan asked Trump’s lawyer Lauro if she thought it was appropriate that the presidential candidate called D.C. “filthy” and “crime-ridden.” He defended Trump by saying that it was a political statement against his opponent, Joe Biden.
She’s upbraided Lauro before for saying “political” things in her courtroom, but, of course, this case is an entirely political exercise, brought to take Trump out of the 2020 presidential campaign, whether overtly or in the court of public opinion.
At one point, Chutkan told Lauro that his client doesn’t have unfettered First Amendment rights after he kept deriding Smith’s efforts to gag Trump as “censorship.” The judge shot back, “There is no question that a court is entitled to draw restrictions on a def[endant]’s behavior and a def[endant]’s speech pending trial.” The judge continued, ” You [Lauro] keep talking about censorship like the def[endant] has unfettered First Amendment rights. He doesn’t,” she lectured.
Lauro keeps calling this "censorship," and Chutkan stops him: There is no question that a court is entitled to draw restrictions on a def’s behavior and a def’s speech pending trial. You keep taking about censorship like the def has unfettered First Amendment rights. He doesn’t.
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) October 16, 2023
Trump also wants to have jurors fill out a questionnaire in an attempt to discover their biases — which shouldn’t be hard since 97% of D.C. voters cast votes for Biden.
Special Counsel Smith previously put up a fight over the possibility of the questionnaire, suggesting that D.C. is so small that potential jurors could be discovered without their names being revealed. Of course, Trump wants the questionnaire to show an appeals judge at a later time how incredibly biased the jury pool is in the nation’s capital. The special prosecutor argued, according to reporter Lowell, “Special Counsel prosecutor Molly Gaston tells Judge Chutkan: Trump isn’t campaigning, he’s using his campaign to intimidate witnesses and pollute the jury pool.”
And this is where the surreal aspect comes in. The Special Counsel chose the D.C. jurisdiction in which to bring this case because that’s where the Capitol Building breach was, but he didn’t have to. He’s hoping the decidedly anti-Trump jury pool will do anything he wants. But he doesn’t want Trump to question the jurors to find out just how biased they are. Indeed, they claim that Trump speaking would taint the jury pool in an area that is already decidedly against Trump.
NEW: Jack Smith desperate to prevent the public from learning about the deep bias of DC jury pool. He already asked Judge Chutkan for restrictions on defense jury survey to gauge prejudice of jury pool now wants more rules related to picking, vetting jurors: pic.twitter.com/thiGOdzvxG
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 10, 2023
Trump wasn’t part of the breach; he was arguing around the entire country that the 2020 election was stolen. Smith charged Trump with defrauding the United States because he said it out loud, with obstructing an official proceeding, even though he wasn’t there and didn’t call for people to break into the Capitol Building, and with conspiring against the voters because his opinion might not match voters who didn’t cast their ballots for him.
Trump wrote Sunday that “Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before.” And that’s right. Democrats are using every tool in their unlimited warfare bag to do to the 2024 campaign what they did to the 2020 campaign.
On Monday, the judge decided that she could shut down Donald Trump from telling the American people what he believes is the truth about his case.
Guess what, PJ Media readers: the courts are doing to Donald Trump what social media companies have already done to Trump and conservative media, including PJ Media. Don’t let “Democracy die in darkness,” support PJ Media by becoming a VIP member where censors have less sway to shut us up. Use the promo code SAVEAMERICA to take 50% off your new annual PJ Media VIP membership.
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