Former President Donald Trump’s legal team filed a formal notice on Tuesday that he plans to appeal the gag order U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan placed on him in the criminal case over his effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Chutkan wrote in a three-page order released Tuesday that Trump’s verbal and written attacks against “potential witnesses, prosecutors, and court staff” pose a “grave threat” to the judicial process in the coup attempt case against Trump.
“Defendant has made those statements to national audiences using language communicating not merely that he believes the process to be illegitimate, but also that particular individuals involved in it are liars, or ‘thugs,’ or deserve death,” Chutkan wrote in her three-page order. “Undisputed testimony cited by the government demonstrates that when defendant has publicly attacked individuals, including on matters related to this case, those individuals are consequently threatened and harassed.”
Trump previously called special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges against him in the Jan. 6 case and a separate one over classified documents, was a “thug” and “deranged,” and has claimed the prosecution is part of a conspiracy against him.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro argued that because Trump is running for president in 2024, the First Amendment protects his speech. However, Chutkan said that because Trump is a criminal defendant his presidential candidacy doesn’t excuse statements “that would otherwise intolerably jeopardize these proceedings.”
Lauro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
