Judge agrees to ‘narrow’ gag order limiting Trump attacks on witnesses in Jan. 6 case

A federal judge said Monday that she would impose a gag order barring former President Trump from attacking future witnesses in his election interference case, as well as prosecutors, court staff and their families.

Judge Tanya Chutkan said Trump’s status as a candidate did not give him carte blanche to level a “smear campaign” against those involved in the case, saying that “First amendment protections yield to the administration of justice and to the protection of witnesses.”

She declined however, to grant an order with the breadth requested by the Justice Department in September, declining to limit any speech attacking her or the District of Columbia, saying the court would use the jury selection process to ensure it does not pick jurors swayed by Trump’s repeated attacks on the city.

The extent of Chutkan’s order was not entirely clear, saying she would describe only the “contours” of her decision Monday, while drafting a formal ruling later.

Still, she clarified the order would not stop Trump from attacking President Biden or claiming over the course of his campaign that the prosecution is politically motivated — an assertion the Justice Department again denied during the hearing.

“This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,” Chutkan said. “This is about language that dangers the administration of justice.”

Chutkan said her ruling reflected the realities of being a criminal defendant — at one point noting Trump’s four different criminal cases — and saying release conditions allow for restrictions on speech. 

During the more than two-hour hearing, Chutkan in particular took issue with Trump’s statements calling special counsel Jack Smith a deranged thug.

“I cannot imagine any other criminal case where a defendant is allowed to call a prosecutor deranged or a thug,” she said.

“I will not permit it here simply because the defendant is running a political campaign,” Chutkan added.

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