Trump asks appeals court to block D.C. gag order limiting his 'uniquely powerful voice'

Former President Donald Trump is asking an appeals court to invalidate the gag order imposed on him by District Judge Tanya Chutkan in the 2020 election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, reported Politico's Kyle Cheney on Thursday evening.

The order narrowly prohibits Trump from attacking court officers or witnesses, but doesn't categorically prohibit him from discussing or criticizing the case against him publicly. But even this is too much for the former president.

"Given the Gag Order’s extraordinary nature, one would expect an extraordinary justification for it. Yet none exists," wrote Trump's attorneys in the filing. "President Trump has made months of public statements about this case, but the Department of Justice ('the prosecution') submitted no evidence of any actual or imminent threat to the administration of justice. Instead, when asked about the supposed threat to the case, the prosecution admitted, 'of course this prejudice is speculative.'"

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"Based this speculation, the district court entered a sweeping, viewpoint-based prior restraint on the core political speech of a major Presidential candidate, based solely on an unconstitutional 'heckler’s veto,'" the filing continued. "The Gag Order violates the First Amendment rights of President Trump and over 100 million Americans who listen to him. President Trump’s uniquely powerful voice has been a fixture of American political discourse for eight years, and central to the American fabric for decades."

Chutkan recently suspended the gag order as Trump sought to appeal the matter, but reinstated it over the weekend.

All of this comes as Trump faces a separate gag order in the civil fraud trial in New York — which has led to Trump being fined twice as he violates the judge's restrictions.