A federal judge in Washington has denied Donald Trump’s request to keep on hold a partial gag order barring him from publicly criticizing prosecutors, potential witnesses, and court staff involved in the federal election prosecution against him.
The ruling from US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Sunday night means the gag order is set to again take effect unless a higher court intervenes, according to a summary of the ruling published on the docket. The former president’s lawyers are expected to ask a federal appeals court to immediately step in and halt the speech restrictions from being enforced while they pursue a full appeal of the gag order.
A spokesperson for Trump didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The judge’s full opinion wasn’t immediately available.
“The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform Sunday after the ruling.
Chutkan had temporarily paused her order from taking effect as she considered whether to grant Trump’s request for a longer reprieve as he takes the fight to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Read More: What Trump Can’t Talk About, According to His DC Court Gag Order
Prosecutors argued not only to reinstate the restrictions but also to tighten them. They noted in a court brief that in the days leading up to Chutkan’s ruling, Trump had posted a message online about former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — a witness in the case — that likely would have violated the gag order — and was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines for violating a gag order in a separate case in New York.
Chutkan had announced the gag order after hearing arguments on Oct. 17. She concluded that Trump’s numerous public comments about the case and key individuals involved so far could “implicitly encourage violence against public servants” and posed a “real risk” of intimidating or influencing witnesses. She said that his First Amendment free speech rights did “not allow him to launch a pretrial smear campaign.”
The order bars Trump from making statements “that target” Justice Department Special Counsel John “Jack” Smith and other prosecutors, any court staff, or witnesses and the substance of their testimony. He also wasn’t allowed to direct others to make the statements he wasn’t allowed to make.
The judge didn’t impose as broad of an order as prosecutors had wanted, leaving Trump free to attack her, the Biden administration and Justice Department more broadly, and the city of Washington and its residents, who make up the pool of potential jurors.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the gag order is unconstitutional, especially given his status as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination next year. He hired a new team of lawyers specifically to tackle the gag order as it goes up on appeal. If he loses in the DC Circuit, he could ask the US Supreme Court to hear the fight.
(Updates with Trump post on Truth Social in fourth paragraph)