Former US President Donald Trump may end up being slapped with a gag order over the bombastic statements he has been making while standing trial on charges of election interference.
US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan who presides over Trump’s case is expected to hear the arguments on the matter from the prosecution and the ex-POTUS’ defense team on Monday morning, with at least one media outlet suggesting that she may “rule from the bench by the end of the hearing.”
The prosecutors argue that Trump verbally attacked people involved in his case, such as Special Counsel Jack Smith who brought the charges against him, and Judge Chutkan herself, the media outlet notes.
Trump has made numerous colorful remarks during the course of his trial. Some of those include the former president branding the prosecutors as a “team of thugs” and labeling a potential witness “a gutless pig,” another media outlet points out.
The situation, however, is complicated by the fact that Trump’s trial is taking place as he remains a heavyweight contender for the US Republican Party’s presidential nomination for the upcoming 2024 election.
Trump’s legal team has already insisted that the proposed gag order is “nothing more than an obvious attempt by the Biden administration to unlawfully silence its most prominent political opponent, who has now taken a commanding lead in the polls.”
According to Trump’s lawyers, the Biden administration’s plan is “quite simple: unleash a 45-page speaking indictment, discuss and leak its talking points in the press, and then cynically attempt to invoke the Court’s authority to prevent President Trump and those acting on his behalf from presenting his side of the story to the American people during a political campaign.”