Scott Morgan/Reuters
The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election subversion case in Washington, D.C. on Sunday night reinstated a gag order on the former president, restricting what he can publicly say about witnesses and prosecutors ahead of the March 2024 trial.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan first imposed the narrow order on Trump on Oct. 16 after a legal slugfest between his team and federal prosecutors ended in her deciding that his rights under the First Amendment did not empower him “to launch a pretrial smear campaign” against his perceived enemies.
After Trump’s lawyers scrambled to appeal the order, Chutkan temporarily froze it on Oct. 20 to allow them more time to develop arguments that it should be paused indefinitely as the appeals process plays out. Federal prosecutors fought for it to be restored, writing that Trump had already “capitalized” on the pause to send “an unmistakable and threatening message” to Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff and “a foreseeable witness.”