Mark Meadows, White House chief of employees, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks to members of the media earlier than boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, July 29, 2020.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Special counsel Jack Smith requested a federal judge to reimpose a gag order on former President Donald Trump in his election interference case in Washington, D.C., accusing him of attempting to intimidate witnesses — together with his former chief of employees, Mark Meadows.
Trump has “capitalized” on the non permanent suspension of his partial gag order to “ship an unmistakable and threatening message to a foreseeable witness in this case,” Smith wrote in a submitting Wednesday evening in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Smith pointed to Trump’s statements in response to ABC News’ report that Meadows, the ultimate chief of employees of Trump’s presidency, has been granted immunity to testify to the particular counsel’s prosecutors.
Meadows reportedly informed Smith’s crew that he informed Trump repeatedly after his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden that Trump’s claims about widespread voter fraud had been baseless. Smith’s four-count indictment accuses Trump of illegally conspiring to overturn that loss. Trump has pleaded not responsible.
In a Truth Social post late Tuesday, Trump instructed that Smith had coerced Meadows into maligning him.
“Some individuals would make that deal, however they’re weaklings and cowards, and so unhealthy for the long run our Failing Nation. I do not suppose that Mark Meadows is considered one of them, however who actually is aware of?” wrote Trump.
Former White House Chief of Staff throughout the Trump administration Mark Meadows speaks throughout a discussion board titled House Rules and Process Changes for the 118th Congress at FreedowmWorks headquarters on November 14, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the unique gag order Oct. 17, after discovering that Trump’s many bellicose statements concerning the case posed “grave threats to the integrity of those proceedings.”
The gag order bars Trump and different events in the case from making public statements concentrating on potential witnesses, in addition to Smith, the protection counsel, members of the court docket or any of their staffers.
But she put it on maintain final week whereas she thought of Trump’s request for a keep of the order, pending his enchantment of the restrictions on his speech.
If Trump had nonetheless been topic to the gag order, he would have been prohibited from immediately concentrating on Meadows, like he did in the Tuesday publish.
Trump claims that he is being “silenced” by Chutkan’s order. The declare is a part of his broader conspiracy idea that his quite a few indictments are a part of an effort by the Biden administration to undermine his 2024 presidential marketing campaign.
“The defendant has not remotely been ‘silenced,'” Smith wrote in Wednesday’s submitting. “The solely factor he can not do is goal sure people linked to the case.”
Smith urged the judge to elevate the pause on her gag order, and to reject Trump’s bid for a broader keep pending enchantment.
“Unless the Court lifts the executive keep, the defendant won’t cease his dangerous and prejudicial assaults,” Smith wrote.
The particular counsel additionally requested the judge to modify Trump’s situations of launch to stop him from sending even oblique messages to witnesses.
“To the extent that the defendant’s public message — directed to the Chief of Staff, with data that it might attain him — is not already lined by his launch situations, it is an intentional end-run round them,” he argued.
“Accordingly, the Court ought to modify the defendant’s situations of launch by making compliance with the Order a situation or by clarifying that the prevailing situation barring communication with witnesses concerning the info of the case contains oblique messages to witnesses made publicly on social media or in speeches,” he added.
Doing so would give Chutkan the correct judicial instruments to implement compliance or enact penalties for violating the order, wrote Smith. “Otherwise, with out the Court’s intervention, the defendant will proceed to threaten the integrity of those proceedings and put trial members in danger.”
Trump faces one other gag order in a separate civil case in New York, in which he and his firm are accused of falsely inflating the values of his actual property properties and different property for monetary advantages.
Trump has twice violated that gag order, which solely forbids him from making public statements concerning the judge’s employees, because it was imposed in early October.