The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s 2020 election subversion case on Friday warned inflammatory remarks from the former president would push her to schedule the trial sooner, saying she would take every step to safeguard the integrity of proceedings and to avoid tainting the potential jury pool.
The admonition came as the US district court judge Tanya Chutkan ruled on Trump’s requests to have fewer restrictions in a protective order that will govern what evidence turned over to his lawyers in the discovery process the former president could share publicly.
Broadly speaking, Chutkan ruled that Trump was free to share “non-sensitive materials” as designated by prosecutors, but narrowed the scope so closely that it could ultimately amount to only a pyrrhic victory. Chutkan also ended up rejecting the majority of Trump’s other requests.
The judge repeatedly emphasized that she would not take into account Trump’s presidential campaign, telling Trump’s lead lawyer John Lauro that the former president’s free speech rights were not absolute and that they came second to the fact that he is now a criminal defendant.
“What the effects of my order are on a political campaign are not going to influence my decision. This is a criminal trial,” Chutkan said. “The defendant’s desire to conduct a campaign, to respond to political opponents, has to yield.”
Trump has characterized the indictment, charging him with four felonies over his attempt to obstruct the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January 2021 and to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as a political witch-hunt and infringing on his first amendment rights.
To that end, his lawyers had filed a 29-page brief before the hearing asking the judge to issue a less restrictive protective order, a routine step in criminal cases to ensure evidence turned over to defendants in discovery is used to help construct a defense but not chill witnesses.
Trump’s legal team had asked for various accommodations, such as giving Trump the ability to make public any transcripts of witness interviews that are not protected by grand jury secrecy rules and to expand the circle of people who could gain access to the discovery material.
Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith had asked to impose a protective order almost immediately after Trump was arraigned last week, specifically referencing a vaguely threatening post from Trump that read: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
The prosecutors did not ask the judge to impose a gag order on Trump to prevent him from discussing the case, but made an inferential argument that there needed to be clear rules on how Trump could publicly use evidence turned over to him in discovery.
The judge was skeptical of the government’s argument that even non-sensitive materials should be subject to the protective order, saying Trump was prohibited from intimidating witnesses as a condition of his pre-trial release, and agreed to limit the scope of the order.
But Chutkan was unimpressed by the attempt of Trump’s lawyers to designate witness deposition transcripts and recordings as “non-sensitive” and rejected that request, which will dramatically reduce the volume of records that Trump could discuss publicly.
The judge also refused to allow yet-unnamed volunteer attorneys or consultants working for Trump to view the discovery material, saying the request from Trump’s lawyers was so broad that it could “include just about anyone” including potential “unindicted co-conspirators”.
“The definition you have currently is simply too broad,” Chutkan told Trump’s lawyers. “It allows just about anybody. You know, I live in Washington, anyone is a consultant.”
Chutkan ruled that Trump would be allowed to review the discovery materials without needing his lawyers there with him every time, seemingly sympathetic to the plea from Trump’s lawyer John Lauro that “babysitting” his client while he read transcripts was not practical.
The judge, however, imposed caveats after prosecutor Thomas Windom raised concerns that Trump might try to copy sensitive discovery materials if left alone with them. “He has shown a tendency to desire to hold on to material he knows he should not have,” Windom quipped.
Chutkan’s final decision was to allow Trump to review the discovery materials alone so long as he did not carry electronic devices that could replicate the records. She also ruled that Trump could take notes, but that his lawyers needed to review them to ensure it did not include “sensitive” content.
The judge also made clear that the moment Trump took a break from looking at the the discovery materials, his lawyers needed to regain custody of them from Trump. “Certainly he can’t carry them around with him,” Chutkan said.
Trump was represented in court by Lauro, a former federal prosecutor, his law firm partner Gregory Singer, and Todd Blanche. Afterwards, Lauro declined to comment on the hearing. The government was represented in court by prosecutors Windom and Molly Gaston.
