The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s federal election subversion criminal case has reinstated the gag order she issued on the former president earlier this month.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan also denied Trump’s request to issue a long-term stay of the order – which bars the former president from publicly targeting court personnel, potential witnesses or the special counsel’s team – while his appeal of it played out.
Chutkan’s ruling appeared in a brief docket entry Sunday evening. Details of her ruling were not yet available.
Chutkan issued the order earlier this month after prosecutors raised concerns that the former president could intimidate witnesses or encourage harm against prosecutors through his public comments. Trump quickly appealed, and Chutkan temporarily froze the order on October 20 while special counsel Jack Smith’s team and Trump’s attorneys litigated whether it should be paused indefinitely during the appeals process.
Trump now faces two gag orders barring him from discussing aspects of his legal cases in the public: One from Chutkan, who is overseeing the case brought by Smith in Washington, DC, and a second from the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial in New York. While the orders are both limited in scope, they mark a measurable limit on the former president’s speech.
Prosecutors from Smith’s office urged Chutkan last week to reinstate the gag order, arguing that almost immediately after she paused the order Trump resumed publishing allegedly intimidating posts about prosecutors and potential witnesses in the case on social media.
Trump has said in court that the gag order infringes on his First Amendment rights and limits his ability to discuss the case on the campaign trail.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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