Though the final decision remained forthcoming, a federal appeals court operating in Washington, D.C., was widely expected in recent days to be on track to reimpose a gag order on Donald Trump in his criminal case from Special Counsel Jack Smith covering January 6 allegations.
Questions from judges sharply jabbed at the notion from Trump’s team that he should be completely free of the proposed order. “None of the judges embraced Trump’s claims that the gag order should be wiped away for good because it is a “categorically unprecedented” violation of his free speech rights,” CNN reported after the conclusion of recent oral arguments in court. One judge, Patricia Millett, said that the order as put forward did not constitute a general threat towards the First Amendment and its free speech protections at all. “This is only affecting the speech temporarily during a criminal trial process by someone who has been indicted as a felon,” the judge observed, as CNN highlighted.
The order, if put back into place, would not completely block Trump’s public comments related to this case, which alleges a series of criminal conspiracies inherent in his attempts to thwart the Congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Its original terms blocked attacks from the ex-president on figures including witnesses.
Since oral arguments, the federal team has alerted the court to a recent filing in an entirely separate dispute that outlines threats and harassment that have been tied to commentary from Trump. The venue for that dispute and the target, in general terms, of the threatening behavior is the New York court where trial has been moving forward on the state attorney general’s case accusing Trump of fraud. “Because… the Court inquired at oral argument about evidence of ongoing threats and harassment, the Government respectfully submits Exhibit E (and the related documents, for completeness) as supplemental authority,” the government’s Thanksgiving filing with the appeals court said.
