Judge limits what Trump can talk about
WASHINGTON — The federal judge overseeing the election conspiracy case against Donald Trump warned on Friday that there are limits on what the former president can publicly say about the investigation as he campaigns for a second term in the White House.
Presiding over her first hearing for the case, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington heard arguments on how to structure a protective order that would prevent a public airing of all the evidence turned over by prosecutors. But she also used the forum to address the case’s unprecedented mix of legal and political concerns.
Chutkan stressed that political considerations wouldn’t guide her decisions. She also repeatedly said Trump was subject to the court’s rules as a defendant before trial even as he runs for the 2024 Republican nomination for president.
“Your client’s defense is supposed to happen in this courtroom, not on the internet,” Chutkan told Trump‘s lawyers.
The judge said that the more anyone makes “inflammatory” statements about the case, the greater her urgency will be to move the case more quickly to trial to prevent the contamination of the jury pool.
“I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of the case,” she said.
A prosecutor said the Justice Department was prepared to turn over an initial batch of more than 11 million pages of evidence to Trump’s lawyers.
Chutkan agreed with Trump’s defense team on a looser version of a protective order for evidence in the case, but she largely sided with the prosecution on what sensitive materials should be protected.
She rejected prosecutors’ broader protective order proposal that sought to prevent the public release of all evidence. . She instead seemed poised to impose a more limited protective order that would bar the public release only of materials deemed “sensitive,” such as grand jury materials.
The government considers the vast majority of evidence in the case to be sensitive.
When prosecutors proposed the protective order, it became an early flashpoint in the case. The prosecutors called the judge’s attention to a post on Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, in which he said he would be “coming after” those who “go after” him.
They warned Trump could improperly share sensitive information online that could have a “harmful chilling effect on witnesses.”
Lawyers for Trump, who has railed against prosecutors and the judge on social media and during campaign events, said the government’s proposed order went too far and would restrict his free speech rights.
“President Trump has the ability to respond fairly to political opponents,” said John Lauro, an attorney for Trump.
The case, unsealed last week, is the first criminal case that seeks to hold Trump accountable for his efforts to cling to power before an angry mob of supporters fueled by his election lies attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Smith’s team has indicated that it wants the case to move to trial swiftly, and this week it proposed a Jan. 2 trial date. Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in March in a New York case stemming from hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign and in May in another case brought by Smith accusing the former president of hoarding classified documents at his Mara-lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.