Judge Chutkan holds hearing over proposed gag order against Trump in DC

A federal judge will consider whether to issue a gag order against former President Donald Trump in a hearing in Washington, DC, Monday.

Following the two federal indictments against the former president, Trump has lashed out against prosecutors, potential witnesses and the judge overseeing the election subversion case in Washington. Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith say these comments are enough to warrant a narrow restriction on Trump’s speech around the case.

The judge in DC, Tanya Chutkan, has previously warned Trump that comments he or his attorneys make could threaten the case.

In social media posts, Trump has attacked Chutkan as a “biased, Trump Hating Judge” and called Smith “deranged” and a “thug” as well as attacked individual members of his team.

When he first appeared in Chutkan’s courtroom in late August on charges that he unlawfully worked to overthrow the 2020 election results, the judge warned Trump against making “inflammatory” comments in the case.

“Legal trials are not like elections, to be won through the use of meeting halls, the radio and newspaper,” Chutkan said at the time, later adding: “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”

Trump’s attorneys have attacked the proposed order as fundamentally antithetical to his First Amendment rights and suggested the order is simply a way for President Joe Biden and the Justice Department to hurt Trump’s ability to campaign.

“The Proposed Gag Order is nothing more than an obvious attempt by the Biden Administration to unlawfully silence its most prominent political opponent,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a court filing.

Any restrictions on Trump’s speech, regardless of how narrow, would likely be brought up in appeals in the case along with defense attorney’s…