(Washington) The judge in the federal trial of former US President Donald Trump, prosecuted for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, on Monday banned him from any public comments targeting prosecutors, court staff, and witnesses.
The favorite of the Republican primaries is now prohibited from calling special prosecutor Jack Smith a “crazy” and his colleagues “thugs” but will be able to continue to lash out against his Democratic successor Joe Biden, systematically nicknamed “scoundrel”.
“Something terrible happened to democracy today,” Donald Trump immediately reacted on social networks, who announced his intention to appeal, once again calling it a “witch hunt.”
At the end of a hearing lasting more than two hours before a Washington court, Judge Tanya Chutkan granted part of a request from the special prosecutor.
The accused’s candidacy for the 2024 presidential election “does not give him carte blanche to vilify civil servants who are simply doing their job,” the judge said.
PHOTO ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE US, PROVIDED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES
Judge Tanya Chutkan
“This would not be permitted to any other defendant and I will not allow it in this case,” Mr.me Chutkan, announcing that his written decision, aimed at both the prosecution and the defense, would be published later in the day.
During the debates, she divided the targets of Donald Trump’s vindictiveness into five categories.
The judge rejected the prosecutors’ request for the first two, the federal capital and its population, as well as the Biden administration, including its Department of Justice, nicknamed by Mr. Trump “Department of Injustice”, finding them sufficiently protected by the rules already in force.
On the other hand, it considered it necessary to grant additional protection to the three other categories: prosecutors, judges and court employees, and potential witnesses.
Donald Trump will thus be allowed to attack his former vice-president Mike Pence on a political level, but not on his status as a potential witness in this case.
“Electoral calendar”
The magistrate mentioned the billionaire’s civil trial in New York for fraud on the value of his real estate assets, during which he personally attacked a court clerk.
She repeatedly cited the virulent criticism published by the accused on social networks, against him or towards Washington and its inhabitants, from whom the future jurors of the trial will be selected. She heard both parties in turn to determine what type of comment she should authorize or prohibit.
She unsurprisingly once again dismissed the defense’s requests for a postponement of the trial, which is scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024.
“This trial will not be subject to the electoral calendar,” she said.
“A simple solution would be to have this trial after the election to resolve the problem,” argued John Lauro, Donald Trump’s lawyer.
“The Biden administration is trying to censor a political opponent in the middle of the campaign,” he reiterated.
For the prosecution, prosecutor Molly Gaston highlighted the risk of seeing “the trial be held in the public square rather than in this court” and of “pollution of the jury before it is constituted”.
Judge Chutkan in September rejected a request from the former president’s lawyers to recuse herself, reaffirming her impartiality.
In the campaign to retake the White House, Donald Trump attributes his legal setbacks to the administration of Joe Biden, whom he could find on his way in 2024 for revenge on the 2020 election.