Donald Trump promised on Tuesday that even if Judge Tanya Chutkan grants the Justice Department a protective order preventing him from “publicly targeting individuals” related to his 2020 election meddling case — he’s gonna to keep talkin’ shit.
While speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, the former president told the crowd that prosecutors were attempting to take away his First Amendment rights through the protective order.
“Crooked Joe now wants the thug prosecutor, this deranged guy, to file a court order taking away my First Amendment rights so that I can’t speak…I will talk about it. I will. They’re not taking away my First Amendment right.”
At his arraignment on Thursday, the former president affirmed his understanding that — as explained by Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya — “it is a crime to try to influence a juror or to threaten or attempt to bribe a witness or any other person who may have information about your case, or to retaliate against anyone for providing information about your case to the prosecution, or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice.”
The message apparently didn’t sink in, and the request for the order was filed by the DOJ on Friday after Trump published several posts on Truth Social that were seen as attacks on prosecutors and Judge Chutkan.
As his lawyers attempt to soften the scope of the order and avoid hard restrictions on Trump’s ability to publicly discuss evidence made available to him through the case’s discovery phase — the former president just keeps on posting.
Almost immediately after leaving his campaign event in New Hampshire, Trump cited the far-right misinformation hub Gateway Pundit in a Truth Social post claiming Judge Chutkan had ties to Hunter Biden.
“The Obama appointed Judge in the FREE SPEECH Indictment of me by my political opponent, Crooked Joe Biden’s Department of InJustice, shared professional ties at the law firm that worked for Energy Company Burisma, based in Ukraine, of which Hunter Biden and his associate were ‘proud’ MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, and were paid Millions of Dollars, even though Hunter knew almost NOTHING about Energy,” he wrote.
“How much was the law firm paid? So Horrible. This is a CLASSIC Conflict of Interest! ‘GATEWAY PUNDIT,’” he added.
The personal attacks against Chutkan likely won’t convince her to rule in his favor. In any case, the judge has ordered a hearing at 10 a.m. Friday to discuss the Justice Department’s motion, whether Trump’s team likes it or not.
Source link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-promises-to-violate-protective-order-attacks-judge-new-hampshire-1234803005/
