Gagged but Not Silenced: Appeals Court Upholds Trump Restraint, But Leaves Him a Key Weapon

In October, Judge Tanya Chutkan in the Federal District Court’s case regarding alleged election interference imposed a gag on Donald Trump, former President and Republican presidential candidate for 2024. He immediately appealed.

The U.S. The Circuit Court of Appeals placed a temporary administrative stay on the Order in early November. It was just a temporary measure until the court could examine Chutkan’s order more closely. Judge Chutkan, in the meantime, made a different decision about a Trump filing that asked to remove language regarding Jan. 6, 2020, from the indictment. She denied it.

The court has now ruled on this gag order. The court has ruled on the gag order, retaining most of its key elements but limiting it to certain speeches by Trump. It’s a bit of a plus for Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP primaries.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel tried to strike a careful balance between “two fundamental constitutional values”, namely the integrity of the judiciary system and the right to Mr. Trump to express his opinion.

The panel, to achieve this goal, kept the original gag order measures in place that prevented Mr. Trump from attacking any of the members of Mr. Smith’s staff or court staff involved in the matter. The panel also maintained provisions that allowed Trump to criticize directly the Biden administration, the Justice Department, and any members of Mr. Smith’s staff or court staff involved in the case and portray the prosecution as a political vendetta.

In one way, the court has expanded its restrictions. It now prohibits Mr. Trump from making comments about the relatives of the lawyers or court personnel involved in the case, if those remarks are intended to interfere in how trial participants do their jobs.

The ruling by the three-judge panel stated that “many of former President Trump’s statements attacking witnesses and trial participants as well as court staff are a threat to the integrity” of the criminal proceedings ….”. However, the gag order “blows out more protected speech than is necessary”.

“Many of the public statements made by former President Trump against witnesses, trial participants, and court staff are a threat to the integrity of criminal proceedings,” wrote Judge Millett. The district court noted that this danger was magnified by the torrent of retribution threats and violence that followed when Mr. Trump made strong statements against individuals, particularly about the case in question and the aftermath of the 2020 elections on which the indictment is focused.

She said that the original order “sweeps more protected speech into the law than necessary.” The First Amendment therefore required a more narrowly tailored restriction.

Donald Trump’s reaction to the court ruling on his Truth Social account

Trump wrote that an Appeals Court had just largely upheld a Gag Order in the J6 Case. In this case, the Unselect Committee of January 6th deleted and destroyed nearly all Documents and Evidence. The court said I could be banned from speaking and, in essence, telling the truth. “In other words, people can attack me or speak violently about me, but I cannot respond in kind. What has become of our First Amendment? What has happened to our Country? We will appeal the decision!

This is a developing story. As new information becomes available, we will provide more information.