The Trump Gag Order Should Be Shut Down

Despite my long-standing criticism of Trump’s personal attacks on judges and critics, this gag order should be curtailed or struck down on appeal. While the odds tend to favor the lower court in such orders, there is ample reason to object to the scope and language of the order. The ill-defined bar on criticizing the prosecution or witnesses (including one of Trump’s opponents in this election) raises serious free speech concerns. It is also unlikely to have any appreciable impact on the heated public debate over this and other prosecutions of the presidential candidate.

Much of this campaign will focus on the alleged weaponization of the criminal justice system. While Trump is still allowed to criticize the case generally, the vague order cuts too deeply into his right to criticize the prosecutor, the judge, and witnesses in the case in this election.

[I don’t like gag orders on defendants in trials, especially when it has nothing to do with classified material. (That’s a different case than this one.) Trump likes to wage PR war on his real and perceived enemies and has lots of resources to do so successfully, which makes this a more acute case than most. But judges and prosecutors are not immune to public debate. — Ed]