Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a gag order on Donald Trump. With this order, the Obama-appointed judge will prevent the former president from publicly criticizing or attacking prosecutors, the court and potential witnesses participating in the trial on Trump's alleged attempt to annul the 2020 election results.
The order came, BBC recalls, after Trump described the prosecutors in charge of the case as "a team of thugs" and referred to a witness in the case as "a gutless pig." However, it was not the tone or the words that worried Chutkan, who claims that Trump poses "a danger to the administration of justice," as reported by CNN:
This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses. This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice. His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their jobs.
In addition, Judge Chutkan assured that if Trump failed to comply with the order in any way, she could impose sanctions. Trump took to his social network, Truth Social, to condemn the ruling:
Trump compares himself to Al Capone
Trump's indignance did not stop Truth Social. At a rally in Iowa Monday, the former president again spoke about the trial as well as the controversial gag order, which he described as "unconstitutional," per the Daily Caller:
Today a judge put on a gag order. I’ll be the only politician in history that runs with a gag order where I’m not allowed to criticize people, can you imagine that? I’m not allowed to criticize people. So we’ll see. We’ll appeal it. And we’ll see, but it is so unconstitutional. The good thing is, we have so much support it is incredible. And it just makes it even more so.
The former president also took the opportunity to jokingly compare himself with the famous Chicago gangster, Alphonse 'Al' Capone. He said that, despite the mafioso being more dangerous than himself, Capone was only accused once, while Trump has already accumulated four legal proceedings:
Look, I’m the only guy that ever got indicted. I got indicted more than Alphonse Capone. Did anyone ever hear of Al Capone? They call him 'Scarface,' he had a little scar, I’m sure it was a minor accident. But Al Capone, if you looked at him the wrong way, if he didn’t like you, you looked at him a little bit askance, he blew your brains out. He was only indicted one time. I’ve been indicted four times.
