Protective order poses dilemma for Tanya Chutkan as Trump could use it to falsely attack the criminal case as political
A federal judge is expected to consider on Monday whether to impose a limited gag order on Donald Trump in the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, potentially restricting what he can say about potential trial witnesses and prosecutors.
The decision for US district judge Tanya Chutkan at the hearing, scheduled for 10am in Washington, comes with unique challenges given the potential for Trump to test the limits of a protective order or even flout it outright – opening the explosive sanctions question of whether to jail him in response.
Since Trump was charged in August with conspiring to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power, prosecutors have complained in court filings that Trump has made dozens of prejudicial statements that could intimidate people from testifying against him at trial and poison the jury pool.
What you said is correct, but just to elaborate:
The courts have established very specific categories where speech can be punished and/or restricted, including things like defamation, false advertising, and limited gag orders.
At the same time, they have made it nearly impossible to establish new categories of speech restriction. That’s why courts uniformly reject arguments along the lines of “We have already restricted X speech, therefore free speech is not absolute, therefore we can now restrict Y speech”.