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Lawyers seeking to lift Donald Trump's gag order are ignoring the fact that he is the only presidential candidate ever to face four criminal indictments, a former federal prosecutor has said.
The former president's lawyers are to appear before a Washington D.C. appeals court on Monday in an attempt to lift the gag order imposed on Trump in his election interference case.
The former president was indicted on four counts in Washington D.C. for allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the runup to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
It is one of four criminal cases that Trump is facing while he campaigns as frontrunner in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination. He has also pleaded not guilty to charges in the other cases and has repeatedly said that they form part of a political witch hunt. Newsweek sought email comment on Monday from Donald Trump's attorney.
Legal commentator Joyce Vance wrote that in their emergency petition to the appeals court, Trump's lawyers said: "No court in American history has imposed a gag order on a criminal defendant who is actively campaigning for public office."
The petition never mentions that Trump is "the first presidential candidate to be under indictment—four times over—while campaigning for the White House," Vance noted.
Vance was writing on her Civil Discourse legal blog on the Substack website. She served as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017. She had been nominated by President Barack Obama. She often appears on MSNBC.
In their petition, Trump's lawyers also said that Judge Tanya Chutkan's gag order is an attempt by the Joe Biden administration to silence its most prominent political foe.
Joyce wrote that this "[ignores] the fact that the Judge has life tenure and is part of a separate branch of government. She doesn't work for Joe Biden or take orders from him."
The Court of Appeals will hear legal arguments in the gag order case at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time and can be heard live at https://www.youtube.com/USCourtsCADC
On November 2, Trump's lawyers filed an emergency petition asking the appeals court to lift the gag order in Trump's election interference case, which is due to go to trial in 2024. The gag order was temporarily lifted pending the appeal.
They wrote that political candidates have long enjoyed free speech, but "that centuries-long practice was broken" when Chutkan issued the gag order in October, which was "muzzling President Trump's core political speech during an historic Presidential campaign."
Chutkan had first imposed a gag order on Trump on October 16, when she said that he was not free to vilify special counsel Jack Smith in public statements.
"Mr. Trump can certainly claim he's being unfairly prosecuted, but I cannot imagine any other criminal case in which a defendant is permitted to call the prosecutor 'deranged' or 'a thug,' and I will not permit it here simply because the defendant is running a political campaign," Chutkan added. "His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify and implicitly encourage violence against public servants who are simply doing their job."
As well as the Washington D.C. election interference case, Trump is facing a federal trial in Florida for allegedly hoarding classified documents. He is also facing a criminal trial in Georgia for alleged interference in the 2020 election and a criminal trial in New York over alleged hush money payments to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more