2023-10-16 20:47:46
Calling the prosecutor a “thug” or a “crazy” is the end of it. The judge in the federal trial of former US President Donald Trump, prosecuted for his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, on Monday banned him from any public comments targeting prosecutors, court staff, and witnesses.
At the end of a hearing lasting more than two hours before a Washington court, Judge Tanya Chutkan granted in part a request from special prosecutor Jack Smith, himself regularly the target of attacks on Donald Trump’s networksand who asked the magistrate to impose a “gag order” on Trump.
“This would not be permitted to any other defendant and I will not allow it in this case,” the judge said, announcing that her written decision, aimed at both the prosecution and the defense, would be published later in the day.
A gag not absolute
On the other hand, she rejected the prosecution’s request concerning criticism aimed at the federal capital and its population, or the administration of Joe Biden, including his Department of Justice, nicknamed by Donald Trump “Department of Injustice”.
The accused’s candidacy for the 2024 presidential election “does not give him carte blanche to vilify civil servants who are simply doing their job,” the judge said.
During the debates, she repeatedly cited the virulent criticism published by the accused on social networks, against him or towards Washington and its inhabitants, from whom the future jurors of the trial will be selected. She heard both parties in turn to determine what type of comment she should authorize or prohibit.
He will thus be allowed to attack his former vice-president Mike Pence on a political level, but not on his status as a potential witness in this case.
No postponement
The magistrate unsurprisingly once again dismissed the defense’s requests for a postponement of the trial, which is due to begin on March 4, 2024. “This trial will not be subject to the electoral calendar,” she said. “A simple solution would be to have this trial after the election and resolve the problem,” argued John Lauro, Donald Trump’s lawyer.
For the prosecution, prosecutor Molly Gaston highlighted the risk of seeing “the trial be held in the public square rather than in this court” and of “pollution of the jury before it is constituted”. Judge Chutkan in September rejected a request from the former president’s lawyers to recuse herself, reaffirming her impartiality.
In the campaign to retake the White House, Donald Trump attributes his legal troubles to the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden, whom he could find on his road in 2024 for revenge on the 2020 election.
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