OAN’s Daniel Baldwin
9:56 AM – Friday, October 27, 2023
Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a court document Wednesday evening asking a Washington, DC federal judge to reimpose a gag order on former President Donald Trump and modify his terms of release.
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“This is Jack Smith escalating this war of words and trying to silence Donald Trump,” Julie Kelly, author of Declassified, told One America News.
Specifically, Smith and his team claimed that Trump needed his speech restricted in order to protect possible trial witnesses and court staff from “intimidation, harassment, and threats.”
“What the government wants now is for her to enforce or modify more stringent, stricter conditions of release,” Kelly said. “So if [Trump] says something like he did about Mark Meadows, that would technically violate the conditions of release and could result in a fine, could result in home detention, could result in prison time if he does it more than once.”
Smith asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to “modify [Trump’s] conditions of release by making compliance with the Order a condition or by clarifying that the existing condition barring communication with witnesses about the facts of the case includes indirect messages to witnesses made publicly on social media or in speeches.”
Chutkan imposed a gag order last week on Trump only to temporarily pause it after Trump’s legal team filed an appeal. After the gag order was suspended, Smith highlighted a post that Trump made on Truth Social regarding a news report that the former White House Chief of Staff took a deal and was set to testify against Trump.
Smith claimed this Truth Social post was Trump attempting to send an “unmistakable and threatening message to a foreseeable witness in this case.” Kelly refutes this allegation.
“Think of the total situation here,” Kelly said. “You have a leak to the news media, one that Mark Meadow’s team has denied. Someone probably with Jack Smith’s office leaks this to a major news organization. They post it. It goes viral, and then Mark Meadow’s team denies it. But Donald Trump can’t say anything about it. He can’t even respond publicly. His lawyers can’t respond publicly.”
“This is another kicker in this proposed gag order, meaning associates or anyone who Trump allegedly directed to respond,” Kelly continued. “So this isn’t just Trump. It’s his lawyers and other people tied to his campaign, maybe family members. We don’t know. That’s how vague and broad this gag order is.”
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