🇺🇸 Gagged

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JUSTICE

GAGGED

On Monday, the judge overseeing the Justice Department's federal election interference case against 2024 GOP frontrunner and former President Donald Trump imposed a limited gag order on Trump, restricting his ability to publicly comment on certain individuals involved in the trial.

Reporting from the Left: Judge imposes gag order on Donald Trump in D.C. trial (POLITICO)

Reporting from the Right: Trump hit with limited gag order in 2020 election interference case by DC judge (Washington Examiner)

From The Flag: Judge Tanya Chutkan’s “narrowly tailored” gag order restricts Trump from posting statements online targeting Special Counsel Jack Smith or Smith’s staff, as well as court staff and witnesses. The gag order does not restrict Trump from criticizing Washington D.C. or claiming that the trial is politically motivated. Here’s how both sides view the gag order.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

This Isn’t Overreach. It’s Necessary.

• Chutkan was responding to a real threat of intimidation from Trump; no other defendant would be allowed to do that without repercussions.

• Given Trump is a former president, he has been given considerable leeway, but is time that he is treated like any other defendant.

• Trump is not above the law, so this was the right move. Unfortunately, it will also be used as fodder for his campaign.

The gag order on Trump isn’t an overreach. There’s a real threat of intimidation, The L.A. Times Editorial Board: “The judge was responding to a real concern. In their request for an order, prosecutors cited several inflammatory comments by Trump on social media. They included Trump’s description of the special counsel Jack Smith as ‘deranged,’ a reference to ‘thug prosecutors’ and a claim that Chutkan was a biased Trump-hating judge.’ ‘I cannot imagine any other criminal case where a defendant is allowed to call a prosecutor deranged or a thug,’ Chutkan said on Monday. ‘No other defendant would be allowed to do it, and I’m not going to allow it in this case.’ …neither the 1st Amendment nor Trump’s status as a candidate gives him a license to intimidate witnesses or bully court personnel. The possibility that his rants might poison the jury pool is also a legitimate concern… Chutkan wouldn’t have had to balance Trump’s free-speech rights and the integrity of the judicial system if Trump had kept a civil tongue in his head and refrained from making outrageous accusations.”

The courts have treated Trump with kid gloves. One judge can stop that. Glenn Kirschner, MSNBC: “...there is one glaring example of how the laws are not being applied equally to Trump, compared to other criminal defendants. In 30 years as a federal prosecutor, I cannot recall ever seeing a defendant on pretrial release in a felony case threaten the life of a witness — or, in Trump’s case, suggest that a witness should be executed — and remain on pretrial release. The judicial system’s casual treatment of Trump’s unending threats, harassment, and intimidation of witnesses is as perplexing as it is alarming. … So far the courts have treated Trump with kid gloves. Will the courts continue to leave him free to endanger witnesses and poison jury pools? Or will they begin treating him the way they tend to treat those without power, wealth, and influence and hold him accountable for his extraordinarily dangerous and damaging rhetoric? Our criminal justice system is being tested — now it must rise to the challenge.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Trump, who never shuts up, now has a gag order to whine about. And you know he will. Rex Huppke, USA Today

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Trump’s Free Speech Is Being Infringed

• The leftist media is promoting the idea that this is an acceptable curbing of Trump’s speech rights since they’re only being “limited.”

• Chutkan has chosen to insert herself into the political conversation, and in doing so, she will only serve to benefit Trump’s ambitions.

• This move is predictably political, and it only provides further evidence that the left will ignore “the rule of law” to target Trump.

Media: How Nice Of Chutkan To Issue ‘Narrow’ Gag Order ‘Limited’ To Only Some Of Trump’s Speech! Elle Purnell, The Federalist: “It was, in the same sense that any authoritarian’s restrictions on citizens’ rights are “limited.” No despot ever outlaws everything anyone could possibly say. Rather, they dictate what people are and aren’t allowed to say. … See, the restrictions on your speech are really quite limited. … But thankfully, the media blob reassures us, Trump can still direct criticism elsewhere, like at the overwhelmingly Democrat residents of D.C. who will make up his jury pool, or at the Biden administration and DOJ “more generally,” or probably at a driver who cuts him off on the freeway or at a barista who botches his coffee order. It doesn’t really matter how many exceptions Chutkan comes up with to her gag order. The speech Trump is being banned from is what matters, in the same way that you don’t have real freedom of the press if you can write scathing critiques of some parts of the government but not others.

Chutkan’s Gag Order Is Pure Gold for Trump Campaign George Parry, The American Spectator: “…regardless of its terms, there can be no dispute that [Chutkan’s] gagging of the leading Republican candidate for the presidency is unprecedented and an alarming milestone on this nation’s descent into banana republic status. Although Chutkan did not state how she would sanction Trump if he violated the terms of her gag order, she could punish such disobedience by imprisoning him for contempt of court. …The myriad ways of getting around Chutkan’s silly order are limitless and — properly orchestrated — will garner political support while making a mockery of her, her regal pretensions, and the forces trying to silence candidate Trump. In short, by her benighted and ill-conceived gag order, Judge Chutkan has entered the rough and tumble arena of presidential politics. She is about to get a bruising lesson in how the game is played and the limits of her paltry power to control Trump’s campaign narrative as well as the tidal wave of public outrage that is about to come her way.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Tanya Chutkan’s Gag Order On Trump Reinforces The Naked Politics Of The Cases Against Him Eddie Scarry, The Federalist

FLAG THIS

Trump’s Words Becoming More Extreme

According to Axios, Trump’s rhetoric is more frequently extreme, inflammatory, and violent. In the last few weeks, Trump’s statements include:

• Saying former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley committed "treason" and implied he should be executed.

• Posting online, "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!" — one day after swearing in federal court that he would not intimidate witnesses in the election interference case.

• Saying special counsel Jack Smith — who's prosecuting Trump in the Jan. 6 and classified documents cases — is "deranged" and a "psycho" who "looks like a crackhead."

• Calling for police to shoot shoplifters on sight.

FLAG FINDS

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