The U.S. judge overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution for allegedly criminally conspiring to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory said that while every American has a First Amendment right to free speech, it is “not absolute” and that even the former president’s campaign statements must yield to protecting the integrity of the judicial process.
In her first hearing over Trump’s federal case in D.C., U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said that “the fact that he is running a political campaign” will have no bearing on her decisions and “must yield to the orderly administration of justice.”
“If that means he can’t say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, then that’s how it’s going to be,” Chutkan said Friday, repeatedly warning the former president and his defense about limits on what he can potentially reveal about government evidence in the case. “To the extent your client wants to make statements on the internet, they have to always yield to witness security and witness safety.”
“I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case,” the judge said after the 90-minute hearing, “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”
Chutkan’s warnings laid down an early marker in the case, even as she settled a fight between the sides over a protective order needed to speed the prosecution’s handover of materials and the court’s setting of a trial date, which special counsel Jack Smith’s team has proposed for Jan. 2.
In the hearing, Chutkan rejected the government’s request for a blanket protective order limiting sharing of all evidence released in the case. However, she mostly sided with prosecutors in granting them leeway to define “sensitive” materials subject to greater protections, adding that Trump’s defense had agreed to similar conditions in his pending special counsel prosecution in Florida on charges of mishandling classified documents and obstruction.
I’m honestly looking forward to watching him clamor to get in front of a news camera to break the order.
We all know from the E. Jean Carroll case that he’s physically incapable of stopping himself from talking shit. Because the very first thing he did after losing that defamation case was jump in front of a news camera and defame her again.
At a certain point, the lawyers will simply need to resort to documenting all of their communications with Trump, so they can start distancing themselves with the “against the advice of legal council, our client…” lines. Basically make it abundantly clear that when Trump breaks the order, that he has been warned and that the lawyers tried to stop him. Because if Trump tries to say that his lawyers okayed it, they’ll also be in some deep shit.
Oh, they already document their meetings. Some have resorted to recording them. There was one set from like 2010 or so who refused to meet with him unless there were two of them present, so that they could be witnesses against whatever bullshit he ended up saying later on.