The Justice Department has asked a federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Washington to step in after he released a post online that appeared to promise revenge on anyone who goes after him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors on Friday requested that U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issue a protective order concerning evidence in the case, a day after Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and block the peaceful transition of power. The order, different from a \u201cgag order,\u201d would limit what information Trump and his legal team could share publicly about the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chutkan on Saturday gave Trump\u2019s legal team until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to the government\u2019s request. Trump\u2019s legal team, which has indicated he would look to slow the case down despite prosecutors\u2019 pledge of a speedy trial, then filed a request to extend the response deadline to Thursday and to hold a hearing on the matter, saying it needed more time for discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chutkan swiftly denied that extension request Saturday evening, reaffirming that Trump must abide by Monday\u2019s deadline.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis talks with diners at Vinton Family Restaurant in Vinton, Iowa, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. DeSantis was on a two-day trip across Iowa. (AP Photo\/Thomas Beaumont)
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FILE – Attorney General Merrick Garland arrives with President Joe Biden for an event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, May 13, 2022. The Justice Department is facing the biggest test in its history in the prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Try as Garland might, though, there is no escaping the politics of the moment when the Justice Department of a president who is running for reelection is indicting his chief political rival, the front-runner for the Republican nomination. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik, File)
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Former President Donald Trump speaks before he boards his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Aug. 3, 2023, in Arlington, Va. This week’s charges against Trump for trying to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election and the accelerating GOP primary have highlighted a new worry about American democracy \u2014 increasing calls by Trump and his allies for more control of federal prosecutions. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)
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Protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said it\u2019s \u201cparticularly important in this case\u201d because Trump has posted on social media about \u201cwitnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors pointed specifically to a post on Trump\u2019s Truth Social platform from earlier Friday in which Trump wrote, in all capital letters, \u201cIf you go after me, I\u2019m coming after you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors said they are ready to hand over a \u201csubstantial\u201d amount of evidence \u2014 \u201cmuch of which includes sensitive and confidential information\u201d \u2014 to Trump\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They told the judge that if Trump were to begin posting about grand jury transcripts or other evidence provided by the Justice Department, it could have a \u201charmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors\u2019 proposed protective order seeks to prevent Trump and his lawyers from disclosing materials provided by the government to anyone other than people on his legal team, possible witnesses, the witnesses\u2019 lawyers or others approved by the court. It would put stricter limits on \u201csensitive materials,\u201d which would include grand jury witness testimony and materials obtained through sealed search warrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Trump spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the former president\u2019s post \u201cis the definition of political speech,\u201d and was made in response to \u201cdishonest special interest groups and Super PACs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chutkan, a former assistant public defender nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, has been one of the toughest punishers of rioters who stormed the Capitol in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, fueled by Trump\u2019s baseless claims of a stolen election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The indictment unsealed this past week accuses Republican Trump of brazenly conspiring with allies to spread falsehoods and concoct schemes intended to overturn his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden as his legal challenges floundered in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The indictment chronicles how Trump and his allies, in what Smith described as an attack on a \u201cbedrock function of the U.S. government,\u201d repeatedly lied about the results in the two months after he lost the election and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump faces charges including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct Congress\u2019 certification of Biden\u2019s electoral victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the third criminal case brought this year against the the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But it\u2019s the first case to try to hold Trump responsible for his efforts to remain in power during the chaotic weeks between his election loss and the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smith has also charged Trump in Florida federal court with illegally hoarding classified documents at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate and thwarting government efforts to get them back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The magistrate judge in that case agreed to a protective order in June that prohibits Trump and his legal team from publicly disclosing evidence turned over to them by prosecutors without prior approval. Prosecutors are seeking another protective order in that case with more rules about the defense team\u2019s handling of classified evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After his court appearance on Thursday in the Washington case, Trump characterized the prosecution as a \u201cpersecution\u201d designed to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign. His legal team has described it as an attack on his right to free speech and his right to challenge an election that he believed had been stolen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday night to more than 1,000 attendees at the South Carolina Republican Party\u2019s 56th annual Silver Elephant Gala, Trump kept up his attacks on Smith, sticking to his usual caricature of the prosecutor as \u201cderanged\u201d for pursuing charges against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smith has said prosecutors will seek a \u201cspeedy trial\u201d against Trump in the election case. Judge Chutkan has ordered the government to file a brief by Thursday proposing a trial date. The first court hearing in front of Chutkan is scheduled for Aug. 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in March in the New York case stemming from hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign and in May in the classified documents case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n