Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision to place a gag order on former President Donald Trump is unprecedented, legal experts said Monday.
Chutkan issued a gag order following a hearing Monday restricting Trump’s statements about special counsel Jack Smith, his staff, witnesses and court personnel. While less expansive than the order requested by prosecutors, legal experts said it is nevertheless the first gag order to be placed on a presidential candidate and will present problems for the former president on the campaign trail, making a swift appeal likely.
Zach Smith, Heritage Foundation legal fellow and former assistant U.S. attorney, told the Daily Caller News Foundation this is a “very serious matter.”
“Not only have we never before had a former president or leading presidential candidate being indicted in four different felony cases with 91 counts across those four cases, but we’ve also never, to my knowledge, had a leading presidential candidate who has had a gag order issued against him basically limiting what he’s allowed to say on the campaign trail,” he told the DCNF.
