Former President Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court Thursday to lift a gag order imposed by a federal judge in Washington, D.C.
United States District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the District of Columbia, who is an Obama appointee, imposed the gag order on Oct. 16 at the request of special counsel Jack Smith. Smith secured a four-count indictment of Trump relating to his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election on Aug. 1.
A short while ago we filed an emergency motion in front of the D.C. Circuit to stay pending appeal the unconstitutional gag order imposed in the ongoing D.C. case against President Trump.
“No court in American history has imposed a gag order to silence any political…
— Will Scharf (@willscharf) November 3, 2023
“The district court entered a sweeping, viewpoint-based prior restraint on the core political speech of a major Presidential candidate, based solely on an unconstitutional ‘heckler’s veto,’” Trump attorneys wrote in a brief filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
“President Trump’s viewpoint and modes of expression resonate powerfully with tens of millions of Americans,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “The prosecution’s request for a Gag Order bristles with hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint and his relentless criticism of the government—including of the prosecution itself. The Gag Order embodies this unconstitutional hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint.”
Trump vowed to appeal after Chutkan reimposed the gag order Monday. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief opposing the gag order on Oct. 25, saying it violated Trump’s First Amendment rights.
“The Gag Order silences public criticism of quintessential public figures—speech entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection,” Trump attorneys wrote. “The Special Prosecutor and his team are high-level government officials who volunteered for the highest-profile criminal case in modern history, and thus ‘thrust’ themselves ‘into the vortex of this public issue.’”
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