Welcome to this week’s edition of the Deadline: Legal Newsletter, a roundup of top legal stories, including the latest developments from the Supreme Court, Donald Trump’s legal cases and more. Click here to have the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Friday this Supreme Court term.
Trump has to shut up again in his New York fraud case — at least when it comes to talking about Judge Arthur Engoron’s law clerk. A state appellate judge had temporarily lifted the order that quieted the former president and his lawyers, but the appeals court reimposed it on Thursday following a deluge of threats against the clerk. Trump himself is expected to testify again in the $250 million civil fraud trial on Dec. 11, before closing arguments in the new year. The question is whether Engoron will make good on his promise of serious sanctions — including imprisonment — if Trump violates the order yet again.
In his federal prosecution in Washington, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan shut down Trump’s attempted fishing expedition for “missing” House Jan. 6 committee materials. Undeterred, the leading GOP presidential candidate wants to cast his line again, pressing Chutkan to grant him additional “discovery” based on far-fetched theories which, my colleague Lisa Rubin explained, would “force the special counsel’s team to search for, collect and turn over records from a constellation of executive agencies as well as up, down and across the Justice Department.” In a significant blow to Trump on Friday night, Chutkan ruled against his attempt to dismiss the case on immunity and constitutional grounds. And the D.C. Circuit still owes us a ruling on the fate of Trump’s gag order in that case.
Elsewhere on Trump’s Washington docket, he lost an important civil immunity case in the D.C. Circuit on Friday, moving him closer toward liability for Jan. 6 civil suits. The ruling didn’t seem to bode well for his criminal immunity claim, which…
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