Special counsel Jack Smith told a federal judge Wednesday evening to reimpose a gag order on former President Donald Trump with consequences that could include "detention" for failing to comply.
The government's 32-page filing on Wednesday portrays Trump as a criminal defendant who must be restricted by a court to guard the integrity of a forthcoming trial and to protect the physical safety of witnesses, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
WHY TRUMP'S FULTON COUNTY CO-DEFENDANTS KEEP TAKING PLEA AGREEMENTS
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order on Trump last week but paused it only a few days later at Trump's request following his appeal. Once it was paused, Trump returned to using similar rhetoric against prosecutors and possible witnesses that would have violated the order if it were in effect, Smith's team wrote in court documents.
“The defendant has returned to the very sort of targeting that the Order prohibits, including attempting to intimidate and influence foreseeable witnesses, and commenting on the substance of their testimony,” senior assistant special counsels Molly Gaston and Thomas Windom wrote.
Prosecutors also raised the most dire warning yet over Trump's pretrial release conditions that were granted to him in August after he was arraigned in the Washington case charging him with four counts related to an alleged attempt to subvert the 2020 election.
Without specifically mentioning incarceration, prosecutors urged Chutkan to make one of the conditions of his release that he does not comment on possible witnesses in the case. They referenced a federal statute that includes "an order of detention" for a defendant who fails to comply with release conditions.
Trump earned a boost in his fight against the gag order on Wednesday with surprise support by the American Civil Liberties Union, a group that rebuked many of his administration's policies but agreed with his counsel that the order Smith requested was "unconstitutionally overbroad."
Trump wasted little time taking advantage of Chutkan's temporary lift of the gag order, but he went way too far, according to Smith, by attacking possible witness Meadows, a close confidante during and after the 2020 election.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he wouldn't think Meadows "would lie" to get immunity ahead of testifying before a federal grand jury this year in the case against Trump, which ABC News reported Meadows was granted.
“In context, it is clear that the Order uses the word ‘target’ to mean singling out a trial participant as ‘the object of general abuse, scorn, derision or the like,’” the prosecutors wrote.
In a separate filing, Smith's team highlighted the recent attorney guilty pleas in the Georgia racketeering case against Trump and how those attorneys' admissions may sink the former president's advice-of-counsel defense in the federal case.
“If the defendant notices such a defense, there is good reason to question its viability, especially because in the time since the Government filed its motion three charged co-defendant attorneys pleaded guilty to committing crimes in connection with the 2020 election,” prosecutors pointed out, adding, “The defense of advice of counsel necessarily fails where counsel acts as an accomplice to the crime.”
Smith was referring to the three attorneys who took plea deals with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis's office. It's worth noting that three other Georgia co-defendant lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Jeffrey Clark, have yet to take plea deals. Doing so could undermine Trump's possible advice-of-counsel defense even further.
The gag order in the Washington court is one of two imposed against Trump in his various legal cases.
Trump was fined $10,000 on Wednesday in his New York civil fraud trial for making a comment about the judge's principal clerk. Trump claimed his remarks were not about the clerk but were referring to his ex-attorney, Michael Cohen, an explanation the judge said "rings hollow and untrue."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Smith has acknowledged in his four-count indictment that Trump could legally challenge his electoral loss but contends Trump illegally sought to block the transfer of power by using fraudulent claims and illegally conspiring to block the counting of electoral votes by Congress.
Trump's lawyers have asked Chutkan to toss the case, alleging it's a vindictive prosecution that violates his free speech. A trial is slated in March in connection with the case.