Former President Donald Trump’s “targeting [of] a known witness” in his federal 2020 election interference case demonstrates why the gag order against him must be reinstated, special counsel Jack Smith argued in a late Wednesday night court filing.
Smith argued that while the 2024 GOP front-runner is within his First Amendment rights to make his claims of innocence, allege the prosecution is politically motivated, and criticize the Justice Department and President Joe Biden, there is a “need to safeguard the integrity of the proceedings, including by protecting certain trial participants from intimidation, harassment, and threats.”
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“What the defendant may not do is publicly target certain trial participants in order to ‘vilify and implicitly encourage violence against public servants’ or to ‘launch a pretrial smear campaign against . . . foreseeable witnesses,’ Smith wrote, adding that Trump’s recent social media posts “to influence and intimidate” were “harmful.”
Smith’s court filing was expected after a series of events transpired within the past week. First, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted Trump a temporary hold on his gag order while she listened to a motion from Trump’s lawyers to suspend it fully while they appeal.
Trump wasted little time in taking advantage of that reprieve, but he went way too far, according to Smith, by attacking a possible witness in the case, Mark Meadows, Trump’s final chief of staff and confidante during and after the 2020 election.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he wouldn’t think Meadows “would lie” to get immunity ahead of testifying before a federal grand jury this year in the case against Trump, which ABC News reported Meadows was granted.
In the same post, Trump ranted that some people “being hounded like a dog for three years,” told they’ll be imprisoned for life, and more would make that deal. “…but they are weaklings and cowards… I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?” the former president added.
Smith has urged Chutkan to reimpose the gag order in light of Trump’s recent comments and what they could mean for the case against him, saying, “…without the Court’s Order there is an immediate risk that [the witnesses’] testimony could be influenced or deterred by the defendant’s documented pattern of targeting.”
Just this week, Trump’s lawyers filed three motions to throw out the election interference case against him. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case charging him with illegally scheming to undo his 2020 election defeat to Biden.
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The Justice Department charged Trump this summer with four criminal counts related to his alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election, which culminated with the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
The former president will stand trial in Washington on March 4, 2024, one day before Super Tuesday. He is also facing three other criminal cases. In Florida, he faces a federal indictment over his handling of classified documents. In New York, he faces charges stemming from alleged hush-money payments made during the 2016 election. And he will stand trial in Fulton County, Georgia, for efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State.
