Trump lashes out at bid for partial gag order in election case: ‘They want to silence me’

WASHINGTON
—

Donald
Trump
on
Friday

attacked
special
counsel
Jack
Smith
as
a
“deranged”
prosecutor
after
his
office
sought

restrictions
on
what
the
former
president
can
say
about
his
federal
election
interference
case.

“He’s
a
deranged
person,”
he
said
of
Smith,
who
led
two
federal
investigations
into
Trump
that
have
yielded
criminal
indictments.

Trump,
who
is
the
leading
Republican
candidate
for
the
party’s
2024
presidential
nomination,
claimed
in
a
speech
Friday
night
that
Smith
“wants
to
take
away
my
rights
under
the
First
Amendment.”

He
“wants
to
take
away
my
right
to
speak
freely
and
openly,”
Trump
said
at
the
conference
of
a
conservative
Christian
women’s
organization
in
Washington,
D.C.

Trump
has
previously
attacked
Smith
in
similar
terms,
but
his
latest
broadside
came
hours
after
Smith
asked
U.S.
District
Judge
Tanya
Chutkan
for
a
partial
gag
order
in
the
D.C.
election
case.

Trump
is
charged
with
four
criminal
counts
in
that
case,
which
alleges
he
perpetrated
multiple
conspiracies
to
overturn
his
loss
to
President

Joe
Biden
in
the
2020
election.

Trump’s
repeated
attacks
on
the
court,
the
prosecutors,
prospective
witnesses
and
the
citizens
of
D.C.
threaten
to
“undermine
the
integrity
of
these
proceedings
and
prejudice
the
jury
pool,”
Smith
wrote
in
a
court
filing.

The
special
counsel
said
he
seeks
“a
narrow,
well-defined
restriction”
on
“certain
prejudicial
extrajudicial
statements.”

Those
would
include
statements
about
the
“identity,
testimony,
or
credibility
of
prospective
witnesses,”
as
well
as
“statements
about
any
party,
witness,
attorney,
court
personnel,
or
potential
jurors
that
are
disparaging
and
inflammatory,
or
intimidating,”
Smith
wrote.

“They
want
to
silence
me
because
I
will
never
let
them
silence
you,”
Trump
told
the
D.C.
crowd.

Smith’s
motion
cites
numerous
social
media
posts
from
Trump’s
Truth
Social
account
railing
against
Chutkan,
the
prosecutors
and
the
city
of
D.C.
itself.
The
filing
also
accused
Trump
of
spreading
“knowingly
false
accusations
of
misconduct”
against
a
prosecutor
in
the
special
counsel’s
office
who
is
working
on
Trump’s
other
federal
criminal
case
in
Florida.

Trump
claimed
that
the
prosecutor
went
to
the
White
House
for
“improper
reasons”
before
Trump
was
indicted
in
that
case,
which
centers
on
his
retention
of
classified
national
defense
records
after
he
was
no
longer
president.

But
“as
the
defendant
well
knows,”
the
prosecutor
“conducted
a
routine
investigative
interview
of
a
career
military
official
at
that
official’s
duty
station
—
the
White
House,”
Smith
wrote,
calling
Trump’s
claim
otherwise
“an
attempt
to
prejudice
the
public
and
the
venire
in
advance
of
trial.”

The
judge
has
yet
to
rule
on
Smith’s
request,
which
if
enacted
could
restrict
Trump
from
disparaging
the
special
counsel
himself.

The
speech
was
the
first
of
two
that
Trump
was
scheduled
to
make
in
D.C.
on
Friday
night.
He
began
speaking
at
the
first
event,
a
gathering
of
the
Concerned
Women
for
America
Legislative
Action
Committee,
about
40
minutes
past
his
scheduled
7:15
p.m.
ET
start
time,
likely
delaying
his
second
appearance
at
the
annual
summit
of
the
Family
Research
Council,
another
religious
conservative
group.

The
trip
marked
Trump’s
first
time
back
in
the
nation’s
capital
since
early
last
month,
when
he
appeared
at
the
E.
Barrett
Prettyman
U.S.
Courthouse
to
plead
not
guilty
in
the
federal
election
case.