Reuters, Associated Press
Donald Trump and Judge Chutkan
CNN
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A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., will rehear arguments on January 6 over whether former President Donald Trump can be barred from speaking about witnesses and court officials while awaiting trial in a criminal case by a special counsel. Rejected.
trump has youAn attempt was made to challenge the gag order, but the attempt failed. He was sentenced on appeal by Judge Tanya Chutkan late last year.
Eleven judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to take up the case Tuesday after a three-judge panel previously upheld a gag order against Trump. There were no comments or dissenting opinions from the judges.
President Trump can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, and his lawyers have previously indicated they intend to appeal the issue to the nation’s highest court if necessary.
CNN has reached out to Trump’s legal team for comment.
In a unanimous decision issued last month, three appellate judges said Trump would be barred from speaking about witnesses, prosecutors, court officials and their families.
But the court ruled that the gag order did not apply to comments about special counsel Jack Smith, changing the original gag order to narrow President Trump’s ban on speaking about witnesses in the case.
The three judges on the panel (Patricia Millet, Nina Pillard, and Bradley Garcia, all Democratic appointees) found that President Trump’s public comments undermined the fairness of a jury trial and that they should not allow witnesses to attend. We believe that the person is likely to be upsetting, threatening or endangering court personnel. The court said this justified restricting Trump’s speech even as he campaigned to return to office.
“Mr. Trump’s documented speech patterns and the real-time, real-world effects they demonstrate pose a serious and imminent threat to the functioning of the criminal court process in this case,” the appeals court said. .
This story has been updated with additional details.
