Federal prosecutors have expressed frustration over former President Trump’s repeated social media comments. He faces a
In a filing over an otherwise sealed legal battle, prosecutors alluded to Trump’s repeated commentary on social media in the case, complaining about “the defendant’s daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool in this case.”
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over Trump’s March trial, sided with Trump’s attorney’s after they requested to respond to the sealed filing in the case, prompting special counsel Jack Smith’s team to say that the former president’s comments about the case were among “the pressing matters before the Court.”
Trump’s comments in the case have ranged from attacks on Chutkan, to name calling Smith, often labeling him as “deranged.”
Prosecutors raised that issue in an earlier hearing before Chutkan.
“He has publicly disparaged witnesses, he has attacked the court and citizens of the District of Columbia which is our jury pool,” Justice Department prosecutor Molly Gaston said in an August hearing to determine Trump’s trial date. Chutkan allowed Trump to speak freely about the case. However, she issued a protective order to
She also warned the parties to take “special care” in any statements they make about the case, saying she would ensure there was no “carnival atmosphere of unchecked publicity and trial by media,” a nod to language from an earlier Supreme Court case.
“The more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case … the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial quickly,” Chutkan said in a prior hearing before seeing a trial date.
Attorneys in the case are expected to file briefs on the matter next week to determine whether the filing should be unsealed. Prosecutors said the filing had to be made under seal as it contained sensitive information that would need to be redacted before being shared publicly.
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