Don­ald Trump banned from attack­ing Jack Smith and wit­ness­es in revived gag order

For­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s state­ments call­ing spe­cial coun­sel Jack Smith “deranged” and sug­gest­ing wit­ness­es who coop­er­ate with pros­e­cu­tors are “weak­lings” may no longer be per­mis­si­ble under a gag order that was rein­stat­ed this week­end in the elec­tion sub­ver­sion case against Trump.
U.S. Dis­trict Judge Tanya Chutkan indi­cat­ed in an opin­ion Sun­day night that at least one such com­ment, which Trump made while the order was tem­porar­i­ly lift­ed this month, would now “almost cer­tain­ly vio­late” the order.
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Orig­i­nal­ly issued on Oct. 17, the order pro­hib­it­ed par­ties in the case from “mak­ing any pub­lic state­ments, or direct­ing oth­ers to make any pub­lic state­ments, that tar­get” Smith or his staff, defense attor­neys or their staff, court staff, and “any rea­son­ably fore­see­able wit­ness or the sub­stance of their tes­ti­mo­ny.”
Trump’s attor­neys argued the order was “breath­tak­ing­ly over­broad” and that it pre­vent­ed Trump, the …