Judge hits pause on partial gag order in Trump federal election interference case

The judge overseeing the federal election interference case against Donald Trump has temporarily lifted the partial gag order imposed on the former president earlier this week.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday paused the order she issued Monday, after Trump’s attorneys asked her to put the previous ruling aside while they appeal the matter.

The judge gave special counsel Jack Smith’s office until Wednesday to file a response to Trump’s request. Defense attorneys will then have three days to respond to the filing by prosecutors. The directives in Monday’s gag order will not be in effect during that time.

The special counsel’s office declined comment Friday night.

Chutkan handed down the gag order after a hearing on Monday where Smith’s team argued that a narrow order was needed to “protect the integrity of the trial and the jury pool.”

She formalized the order in a written decision Tuesday, finding that undisputed “testimony cited by the government demonstrates that when Defendant has publicly attacked individuals, including on matters related to this case, those individuals are consequently threatened and harassed.”

In a filing to the judge on Friday, Trump’s attorneys said her order “imposes an overbroad, content-based prior restraint on the leading Presidential candidate’s core political speech.”

They argued that Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in the case, would suffer “irreparable injury” to his First Amendment rights if the order was left in place while they go through the appeals process.

Chutkan had noted in her ruling that it doesn’t bar Trump from “criticizing the government generally, including the current administration or the Department of Justice,” or his claims that “his prosecution is politically motivated; or statements criticizing the campaign platforms or policies of Defendant’s current political rivals, such as former Vice President Pence.”

Trump’s attorneys said in their filing Friday that the gag order was too constraining.