A federal appeals court handed Donald Trump another loss Tuesday, denying his request to lift a partial gag order restricting his ability to speak publicly about witnesses involved in his election-subversion case.
The gag order has prevented Trump from publicly attacking key figures in the case, and Trump’s twice gone to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to ask that they reconsider—a request that was first shot down via a 68-page opinion in December.
The judges who rejected Trump’s latest appeal—Patricia Millett, Nina Pillard, and Bradley Garcia, all Democratic appointees—indicated they denied Trump’s request because his rhetoric could sway or intimidate witnesses.
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“Mr. Trump’s documented pattern of speech and its demonstrated real-time, real-world consequences pose a significant and imminent threat to the functioning of the criminal trial process in this case,” the appeals court wrote in its decision.
Among the people Trump is barred from speaking about publicly is prosecutors, defense lawyers, legal staff, court staff, supporting personnel, as well as “any reasonably foreseeable witnesses or the substance of their testimony.”
The order, handed down by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in October, applied to all parties in the case, but only Trump has fought to have it upended. The order included a clause that allowed Trump to still criticize the Biden administration and the Department of Justice, a pair of exceptions Trump has taken advantage of on a near-daily basis ever since.
Trump’s lawyers had sought an “en banc” consideration for the gag order to be reconsidered, seeking either a review by the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals or a rehearing before the three-judge panel, but Tuesday’s ruling put an end to that hope.
Trump can now ask the Supreme Court to hear the case, and his lawyers have indicated previously that they planed to bring the issue to the high court if necessary.
