TFG, who has been charged with over 90 felony counts, filed an emergency order blocking Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan’s recently reinstated gag order. TFG believes she has trampled on his First Amendment rights by prohibiting him from threats made against witnesses and prosecutors that could jeopardize the court proceedings and argued that she needed to protect the “orderly administration of justice.”
No court in American history has imposed a gag order on a criminal defendant who is actively campaigning for public office—let alone the leading candidate for President of the United States. That centuries-long practice was broken on October 17, 2023, when the district court entered its Opinion and Order, A1 (the “Gag Order”), muzzling President Trump’s core political speech during an historic Presidential campaign.
The motion then proceeds with a bizarre glorification of Donald Trump and a refutation that any of Trump’s threats made towards witnesses and prosecutors in the case were actually threats. It also absurdly claims “the Gag Order violates the rights of tens of millions of Americans to receive President Trump’s speech.”
In the 35-page motion, Trump asks for a pause of the gag order pending appeal so he can continue to target prosecutors and witnesses involved in the case. He requests a decision by November 10, 2023. Trump says that if the court denies his motion, he will seek relief from the Supreme Court.
