🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The judge in President Donald Trump's election-tampering case should double his jail time whenever he breaks a court-imposed gag order, a law professor has said.
New York University lecturer Stephen Gillers told Newsweek that Judge Tanya Chutkan should first fine the former president and, if it doesn't work, move towards jail time.
He was responding to Trump's social media posts on Sunday night in which the former president unleashed a barrage of insults at his one-time attorney general, Bill Barr, who is a potential witness in the Washington case.
Trump's comments came just after Judge Chutkan reimposed a gag order, preventing the former president from commenting on court staff and potential witnesses in the trial, which is due to begin in March 2024.
"The gag order came down Sunday night. We don't know if Trump was aware of it when he posted about Barr about an hour later. I doubt that Trump checks the court docket. And his lawyers may not have immediately told him about the order," Gillers said.
In a post on social media platform Truth Social on Sunday night, Trump suggested Barr was trying to "get even" with him.
"I called Bill Barr Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN'T DO THE JOB," he wrote.
"I was tough on him in the White House, for good reason, so now this Moron says about me, to get even, 'his verbal skills are limited,'" the former president continued. "Well, that's one I haven't heard before. Tell that to the biggest political crowds in the history of politics, by far. Bill Barr is a LOSER!" he wrote.
Barr had mocked Trump's "verbal skills" at an event at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics.
In seeking to reimpose the gag order, Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith complained in a legal submission that Trump had commented on his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, another potential witness in the Washington trial. Trump had said he didn't think Meadows would turn on him like the other "cowards" who have agreed to testify.
As the Meadows and Barr comments have not been removed from Trump's Truth Social page, Judge Chutkan could consider them both to be a violation of her order.
Gillers said that it is too early for Chutkan to start jailing Trump.
"Incarceration as a penalty would be too harsh for keeping the Barr and Meadows posts online. The right remedy at this point, is monetary, and, if this persists, advancing the trial date to, early 2024."
Trump has long sought a delay in the trial until after the 2024 presidential election.
"If the contumacious conduct continues, however, escalating periods of incarceration would be justified. Begin with 24 hours and double it each time he violates the order," Gillers said.
A federal grand jury in August indicted Trump on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, arising from his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.
Jack Smith is leading the prosecution team, which accuses Trump, among other charges, of submitting false slates of pro-Trump electors from swing states he lost to the Electoral College.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and accuses prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes.
In all, Trump is facing four criminal cases related to claims he orchestrated the payment of hush money to adult actress Stormy Daniels; mishandled classified documents and broke the law attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome both across the United States and in the state of Georgia specifically.
The ex-president pled not guilty to all of the charges. Trump is also embroiled in a number of non-criminal cases, including a $250 million civil fraud trial resulting from a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, in which he also denies any wrongdoing.
Newsweek has sought email comment from Trump's legal team.
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