WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Friday warned Donald Trump not to make “inflammatory” threats against witnesses, part of a limited “protective order” that restricts the ex-president’s public comments about the case that accuses him of trying to steal the 2020 presidential election.
“I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of the case,” said U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, citing concerns about harassment and intimidation of witnesses by Trump, who is running for president again in 2024.
On the other hand, Chutkan said during a pre-trial hearing that prosecutors did not justify their request to subject all of the information in the case to a protective order.
Chutkan has been asked to schedule a trial in early January, near the start of the 2024 election season. The judge said the more “inflammatory statements” that Trump makes, the greater the urgency to proceed to trial “quickly.”
It’s ‘supposed to happen in this courtroom’
Chutkan also told Trump’s lawyers that “your client’s defense is supposed to happen in this courtroom, not on the Internet.”
Protective orders restricting public comments are routine in complex cases. What’s unusual here is that the defendant is a former president who is seeking the White House again in 2024, one who has aggressively attacked prosecutors and potential witnesses as politically motivated.
During the hearing, Chutkan warned that she would closely scrutinize any Trump statements that could be interpreted as attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harass witnesses, the main concern of special counsel Jack Smith and his team.
‘I’m coming after you’
Smith filed a motion for an enhanced protective order last week because of Trump’s apparent threats to witnesses and potential willingness to try the case in public. The filing came short after a Trump Truth Social post that said: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
Trump and attorneys said that post pertained to political action committees that have formed to defeat his 2024 presidential election bid.
In court filings, Trump’s attorneys called Smith’s proposed protective order an attack on his right of free speech and a form of censorship.
Trial schedule
Judge Chutkin also plans to soon set a trial schedule, another point of contention between prosecutors and Trump.
Smith has requested that the judge set a trial date of Jan. 2, less than two weeks before the Iowa Caucuses open the Republican presidential nomination process.
The trial could take four-to-six weeks, prosecutors said; if Chutkin grants an early trial date in early January, that could trap Trump in court during Republican delegate contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, though he and his attorneys will certainly seek to avoid that.
Trump’s attorneys are expected to seek a delay for as long as possible, just as they are with two other criminal trials facing the former president next year.
In a Truth Social post criticizing the Jan. 2 proposal as “election interference,” Trump said the the trial “should only happen, if at all, AFTER THE ELECTION.”
In addition to the election case, Trump is facing a March trial in New York state court on hush money charges and a May trial in Florida federal court on obstruction of justice charges related to the handling of classified material.
Trump also faces a possible indictment this month in Atlanta over allegations that he tried to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia.
Contributing: Associated Press
