(Washington) The judge in the federal trial of former US President Donald Trump for his alleged unlawful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election has reinstated restrictions on any public comment by the parties targeting prosecutors, staff of the court and witnesses.
The judge in this trial scheduled for March 4 in Washington, Tanya Chutkan, pronounced this ban on October 16, which concerns both the prosecution and the defense. She nevertheless suspended it on October 20 following the appeal by Donald Trump’s lawyers, giving the parties until October 28 to submit their arguments.
In her decision restoring these restrictions, published overnight from Sunday to Monday, she cites in particular a comment published by the defendant on his Truth Social network on October 24, i.e. after the suspension, about his last chief of staff, Mark Meadows .
The ex-president raised the possibility that the latter would testify against him in exchange for an offer of immunity from special prosecutor Jack Smith, behavior worthy of “weak and cowardly”, according to him. “I don’t think Mark Meadows is one of them but who knows? », he concluded.
This type of attack against a potential witness would certainly fall under the ban, underlines the judge.
The favorite of the Republican primaries reacted Monday on his network by accusing the magistrate of “hating” him and of not being able to guarantee him a fair trial.
Judge Chutkan in September rejected a request from the former president’s lawyers to recuse herself, reaffirming her impartiality.
Under the ruling, Donald Trump is once again banned from calling Jack Smith a “crazy” and his colleagues “thugs.”
But he can continue to bombard his Democratic successor Joe Biden, systematically nicknamed “scoundrel”, or accuse his administration of using justice to eliminate him from the race for the White House in 2024.