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A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a narrowed version of the gag order against Donald Trump in his federal election interference case, leaving Trump free to speak about special counsel Jack Smith.
Specifically, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s order to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about known or potential witnesses concerning their participation in the case.
The three-judge circuit panel wrote:
The Order is also affirmed to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about—(1) counsel in the case other than the Special Counsel, (2) members of the court’s staff and counsel’s staffs, or (3) the family members of any counsel or staff member—if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staff’s work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is highly likely to result.
The panel vacated the order “to the extent it covers speech beyond those specified categories.”
Trump lawyer John Sauer argued during a hearing last month before the panel that the gag order imposed by Chutkan should be entirely done away with, arguing that restrictions on his client’s speech violate Trump’s First Amendment rights while he’s running for president.
Chutkan had granted Smith’s request for a gag order against Trump, though it was more limited in scope than the government had sought. In the original order, Chutkan restricted what Trump could say about Smith, his staff and witnesses in the case. But she declined to limit Trump’s statements about Washington, D.C., and its residents, or his statements criticizing the government or the Justice Department…
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