In a filing made actually on Thanksgiving, meaning Thursday, the federal prosecutors handling the January 6 case against former President Donald Trump pointed a D.C. appeals court to materials recently filed in a separate case. That earlier documentation, behind which the government has effectively gotten, ties social media commentary from Trump to threats and harassment faced by the New York court handling his fraud trial on allegations from Letitia James.
The appeals court that federal prosecutors alerted is currently considering the question of whether to move forward with the gag order previously imposed on Trump in this case, which originally blocked attacks from the former president on figures including Special Counsel Jack Smith, who’s the lead prosecutor, and witnesses.
“Specifically, the Government refers the Court to Exhibit E to the attached affidavit, which is a sworn affirmation by an employee of the New York State Unified Court System, assigned to the Judicial Threats Assessment Unit, discussing the defendant’s October 3, 2023 social media post, which “resulted in hundreds of threatening and harassing voicemail messages that have been transcribed into over 275 single spaced pages,”” the November 23 doc from the federal government in the January 6 case against Trump said. “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.”
Trump is also embroiled in gag order disputes in the New York case originating with James, with that matter having gone to an appellate court in the state. Both the order in the January 6 matter and the similar move against Trump in the fraud case were temporarily put on hold amid the ongoing appeals process. In the federal case, observers suspect after the tone of recent oral arguments that the order against Trump will be broadly upheld, though no final decision has yet been released.
The DOJ doesn’t take off Thanksgiving:
Gov’t submitting this letter to DC Court of Appeals enc. a copy of document filed in NYAG’s civil fraud case showing “hundreds of threatening and harassing voicemail messages” to Engoron’s law clerk b/c of Trump.https://t.co/MHFUwRHmzv
— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) November 23, 2023
