President Donald J. Trump, joined by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, participates in a phone call with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, in his conference room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)
By Katelynn Richardson
Daily Caller News Foundation
Former president Donald Trump’s lawyers tore into Special Counsel Jack Smith’s defense of Trump’s gag order in a scathing brief Friday, saying his argument would “flunk first-grade math.”
Trump’s lawyers wrote that the defense raised by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office “fails at every step” and violates “a long list of the First Amendment’s most basic doctrines.” Their 37-page Friday filing accuses prosecutors of relying on “hearsay media reports as a substitute for evidence,” which they say highlights the “glaring evidentiary gaps in its case.”
“The Gag Order installs a single federal judge as a barrier between the leading candidate for President, President Donald J. Trump, and every American across the country,” his lawyers wrote. “The district court had no business inserting itself into the Presidential election, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses. The First Amendment does not permit the district court to micromanage President Trump’s core political speech, nor to dictate what speech is sufficiently ‘general’ and what speech is too ‘targeted’ for the court’s liking.”
His lawyers slammed prosecutors’ reliance on “naked speculation” in their only piece of evidence backing the claim that his statements will lead to the threats, harassment and efforts to intimidate witnesses and parties to the case.
In prosecutors’ brief defending the order, they pointed to an Aug. 4 Truth Social post where Trump said, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” noting that an individual threatened Judge Tanya Chutkan the day after Trump’s post. Trump’s lawyers said Friday that the statement had nothing to do with the judge, and Trump did not directly criticize Chutkan until after the incident.
“Aside from this, the prosecution does not identify any instance of supposed threats, harassment, or intimidation to any prosecutor, witness, or court staff in this case—despite months of public commentary on the case by President Trump,” they wrote.
Their arguments suffer “from other yawning logical gaps,” the filing continues.
“The prosecution relies heavily on a parallel gag order entered in New York court, which has now been stayed pending appeal,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, referencing a New York appeals judge’s decision to temporarily pause the order in his civil fraud case. “The prosecution contends that silencing a political candidate with over 100 million followers imposes an ‘equal’ injury as silencing a single speaker—an argument that would flunk first-grade math.”
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments for Trump’s appeal of the order on Monday. The three-judge panel who will hear arguments includes Judges Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard, Obama appointees, and Judge Bradley Garcia, a Biden appointee.
Groups of all political stripes have voiced opposition to the gag order, from the liberal American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to a coalition of 18 Republican state attorneys general.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
IMPORTANT NOTE TO WND READERS: Shortly after Hamas terrorists fired over 5,000 rockets from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7 and then proceeded to attack the Jewish state by land, sea and air – torturing, burning, beheading and murdering well over a thousand people, including women, children and infants, and wounding and abducting hundreds more – world reaction was, in its own way, almost equally shocking.
For after the biggest one-day mass slaughter of Jews since the Nazi Holocaust, what followed was an outpouring of celebratory demonstrations, unbridled Jew-hatred, deliriously gleeful support for Hamas and bitter condemnation of the nation of Israel. Not just in the Arab-Muslim world, but throughout the Western world as well, including all across America.
Why? What is behind the explosion of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, pro-terror sentiment in the United States, where Israel has long been one of America's closest friends and allies? Why are hordes of young "woke" LGBT demonstrators marching in support of Hamas – when Hamas wouldn't think twice about binding and blindfolding them and throwing them off the roof of a tall building – as they routinely do in the Muslim world?
It turns out there's one area of agreement that is so powerful, deep-seated and all-consuming that the vast differences between the deranged left and the murderous jihadists melt away into Kumbaya harmony.
All of this and much more is completely exposed in November's issue of WND's critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled ISRAEL VS. GLOBAL JIHAD: How Jew-hatred, radical Islam and Leftism are pushing us toward World War III. Beyond a deeply insightful dive into why leftists are surging toward radical Islam – which hates and dreams of raping and butchering them – this Whistleblower issue includes fantastic articles by everyone from top Israeli analyst (and former Israel Defense Forces officer) Caroline Glick to Harvest Christian Fellowship's Pastor Greg Laurie on the current war in Israel and biblical prophecies regarding the End Times … which he says are now upon us.
WHISTLEBLOWER is available in both the popular print edition and a state-of-the-art digital version, either single issues or discounted annual subscriptions.
For 25 years, WND has boldly brought you the news that really matters. If you appreciate our Christian journalists and their uniquely truthful reporting and analysis, please help us by becoming a WND Insider!
SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!
The post Prosecutor's arguments on gag order have 'yawning gaps,' Trump lawyers argue appeared first on WND.
