Trump blasts special counsel’s gag order request in federal election case

Attorneys for Donald Trump urged a judge not to impose a partial gag order on the former president in his federal election interference case, claiming that prosecutors are trying to “unconstitutionally silence” him.

The rhetorically charged court filing, submitted late Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., accused special counsel Jack Smith and other federal prosecutors of seeking to strip Trump of his First Amendment free speech rights “during the most important months of his campaign” for president.

Trump’s lawyers claimed the administration of President Joe Biden, who is running for reelection, is trying to muzzle “its most prominent political opponent, who has now taken a commanding lead in the polls.”

“The Court should reject this transparent gamesmanship and deny the motion entirely,” they wrote in the 25-page filing.

They also asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to schedule a hearing “at the first opportunity.”

The federal case charges Trump in connection with a multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case, which is set to head to trial in March.

As part of the conspiracy, the four-count indictment alleges Trump waged a disinformation campaign by spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud.

Smith in a mid-September court filing told Chutkan that Trump “is now attempting to do the same thing in this criminal case — to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prejudice the jury pool” through his attacks.

Smith asked the judge to impose what he called “a narrow, well-defined restriction” on “certain prejudicial extrajudicial” statements made by Trump and other parties in the case.

Those would include statements targeting…