Judge Chutkan made it clear Trump will not be 'litigating this case in public': legal analyst
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is emphasizing to former President Donald Trump and his legal team that the place to litigate the charges against him is in the courtroom, not on social media, said legal reporter Ryan Reilly on MSNBC Friday.
This comes after a hearing on the scope of a protective order limiting what the former president and prosecutors can discuss publicly about the case.
"Ryan, I was struck by the fact that she sort of dismissively suggested that ... the former president's bid to be president again, it was a 'day job,'" said anchor Alex Wagner. "I mean, up until this point, I think there's been a sort of deference, at least in terms of narrative to Donald, the idea of Donald Trump's campaign in 2024, but Judge Chutkan seemed completely uninterested in that. I wonder how that squares with her posture, generally, towards other January 6 defendants."
"Yeah, that was very interesting," said Reilly. "I think she was searching for a term or a word at the moment. That is what she stumbled on. It's probably an accurate description. That is probably how she thinks of it in terms of other cases that have — were handled. This isn't something that he needs to do. This is something that he wants to do. And the priority, she kept saying, was the courtroom proceedings, the priority isn't litigating this case in public. That is not what this trial is ultimately about. That is what she really wants them to get their focus on."
To be clear, Reilly added, "certainly, they have the First Amendment right to talk about the charges in general, but she really wanted to make it clear that you cannot violate those rules and intimidate, intimidate jurors, as we've seen Donald Trump do in the past."
"It's interesting because I do think the judge is in quite a spot here in terms of, these threats are certainly going to be directed at her," continued Reilly. "Donald Trump has already made clear he wants a different judge and she shouldn't have been assigned to this. That's not something you hear his lawyers arguing in court. That is something that the special counsel's office pointed out, that there is already this divide between what Donald Trump is saying on Truth Social and what his lawyers are actually doing in court. That is going to probably be a split that she would probably like to bring in a little bit, right? Bring them back on the same page. But ultimately, I think that there is this huge combination happening between the legal and a political, where it really is the whole ball game, to when this trial ultimately get set for. They are sort of wanting to make the election stand in for a jury trial here."
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