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Donald Trump is in "serious legal jeopardy" and could face fines and imprisonment if he violates a judge's gag order, a former attorney has said.
The former president may deliberately violate Monday's gag order to attract support from his Republican base, Joe Gallina, a moderator with the Call To Activism group that promotes Democratic Party candidates, told Trump's niece, Mary Trump, on her The Good In Us video blog.
Mary Trump, an ardent opponent of his uncle, said that she hoped that Donald Trump would violate the gag order if it meant he would end up in legal trouble and asked if there was anything she and her supporters could do to make it happen.
Gallina said that some people believe the gag order is a "nothing burger," but it actually places Trump in serious legal difficulty if he violates it and he had already come close to violating it in his speech in Iowa just hours after the order was imposed.
Gallina was reacting to a ruling by Judge Tanya Chutkan, who said at a federal courthouse in Washington D.C. on Monday that she would impose a partial gag order on Trump for his inflammatory comments about her, prosecutor Jack Smith, and others involved in an indictment taken against him for allegedly interfering with the 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
"I can't imagine any other criminal case where a defendant is allowed to call a prosecutor deranged or a thug," Chutkan said, referring to Trump's Truth Social post from the night before, in which both she and Smith were denounced as partisan "hacks."
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has already said he will appeal the gag order.
Gallina said that Donald Trump had already come "pretty darn close to breaking the gag order" and, if he breaks it, he will face "financial sanctions and, if repeated offences, [that] will lead to jail." "If he keeps doing it, they have to reply in kind," he said.
Mary Trump replied: "Here's hoping!" in response to the prospect of her uncle being imprisoned.
Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Iowa on Monday that he was willing to go to jail in defiance of the order. "What they don't understand is that I am willing to go to jail if that's what it takes for our country to win and become a democracy again," Trump said, prompting cheers from the audience.
"A judge gave a gag order. A judge doesn't like me too much. Her whole life is not liking me, but she gave a gag order. You know what a gag order is? You can't speak badly about your opponent," he told supporters.
Gallina praised Chutkan for the narrow focus of the gag order, which would make it very difficult for the Supreme Court to overturn it.
The message from Chutkan is that being a presidential candidate doesn't give Donald Trump blanket permission to threaten people and make them targets, he said.
He added that Trump will try to get it overturned in the Supreme Court and that the case is unusual, as there has never been a former president placed under such a gag order before. The Supreme Court will be "salivating" to get its hands on a case that raises such important constitutional issues.
"It's juicy that a former president has restrictions on his speech and I think it will end up in the Supreme court with constitutional issues," he said.
He described it as a "slam dunk" for a fast-track Supreme Court ruling.
In imposing the gag order, Chutkan said Trump's presidential candidacy "does not give him carte blanche" to "encourage violence on public servants simply doing their job".
Her order prohibits any Trump statements targeting the special counsel or his staff.
It also bans "any statement publicly targeting any of my staff or any other court personnel", noting that Trump was already under a gag order in New York for criticizing a court clerk. That case involves his alleged payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Chutkan said the order applies to family members as well, after Trump mentioned Jack Smith's wife in a post. She said the order was "necessary and narrowly-tailored," noting that Trump is still free to say he is being unfairly prosecuted. Chutkan also said he is free to complain about Washington D.C, a Democrat stronghold that Trump denounced as "rat-infested" in a recent post.
Chutkan said Trump's attacks on D.C., which he called a "filthy and crime-ridden embarrassment to our nation" could be handled during jury screening, when attorneys ask questions of potential jurors to see if they have negative or positive feelings towards a defendant.
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