Trump Finally Gets That Gag Order He’s Been Gunning For

Until yesterday, Donald Trump hadn’t managed to get himself gagged in any of the major cases against him. And it sure wasn’t for lack of trying!

The former president is a firehose of invective, spewing attacks on his foes into the airless ether of his Truth Social platform. In the Georgia RICO prosecution, he lobs endless attacks at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, calling her racist and boosting bizarre lies about her sex life. He called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “degenerate psychopath who truely [sic] hates the USA!” and warned of “death and destruction” if he was charged with a crime. (He was charged, the mass protests never materialized.)

Trump lobbed endless tirades at advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in her defamation suits against him, netting himself a second defamation case but no gag order. He also tapped out multiple social media posts attacking “This Clinton appointed Judge, Lewis Kaplan, hated President Donald J. Trump more than is humanly possible.” The court ignored all of it, only grumbling a warning to Trump’s lawyers when their client made multiple posts referring to excluded evidence during the trial itself.

In his civil fraud prosecution, Trump spent four years attacking the court and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“JUST ARRIVED AT THE COURTHOUSE TO FIGHT A CORRUPT & RACIST ATTORNEY GENERAL, AND A ROGUE, OUT OF CONTROL, TRUMP HATING JUDGE, WHO REFUSES TO FOLLOW THE APPELLATE COURT DECISION WHICH KNOKS OUT 80% OF THIS SHAM CASE,” he screamed Monday as he entered the courtroom. “THIS IS THE CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”

But he crossed the line with a post yesterday attacking Justice Engoron’s law clerk by name and calling her Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s “girlfriend.” The post, which included a picture of the clerk with her senator, appears to have been inspired by a deleted satirical website. But the broadside enraged Justice Engoron, who was already pretty testy after four years of shenanigans from Trump’s lawyers.

Returning from a lunch break, there was a flurry of activity in chambers. Back on the bench, the furious jurist warned that“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances.”

“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing, or speaking publicly about any members of my staff,” he went on, according to the Daily Beast, threatening “serious sanctions” for anyone who dared to cross him.

As of now, no formal gag order has appeared on the docket, although the offending social media post has been taken down. But perhaps this restriction won’t be the last for the former president, who is facing four criminal indictments and at least a dozen civil cases.

Citing multiple social media posts which would get any other defendant gagged, including telling former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan that he “shouldn’t testify” and calling for Gen. Mark Milley to be executed for treason, Special Counsel Jack Smith recently moved for a protective order in the election interference case in DC.

“Since the grand jury returned an indictment in this case, the defendant has repeatedly and widely disseminated public statements attacking the citizens of the District of Columbia, the Court, prosecutors, and prospective witnesses,” prosecutors wrote in a Motion to Ensure That Extrajudicial Statements Do Not Prejudice These Proceedings. “Through his statements, the defendant threatens to undermine the integrity of these proceedings and prejudice the jury pool, in contravention of the ‘undeviating rule’ that in our justice system a jury’s verdict is to ‘be induced only by evidence and argument in open court, and not by any outside influence.’”

In a Response In Opposition to Prosecution’s Motion for Prior Restraint, Trump’s attorneys inveighed against a gross assault on the First Amendment, “preventing President Trump from defending himself in the political arena, while giving President Biden and his surrogates (including those in the corporate media) free reign to say whatever they want.”

Judge Tanya Chutkan set a hearing on the proposed order for October 16, hardly suggestive of urgency on the court’s part. She appears to be taking the same approach as every other judge, reasoning that a protracted fight over the defendant’s big mouth isn’t worth the trouble and inevitable delay.

And surely the former president has learned his lesson, and will never again provoke a confrontation by attacking courtroom staff.

LOL.

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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.