Special counsel Jack Smith has asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan for a protective order to prevent Donald Trump from "intimidating" jurors in an election subversion case.
In a court filing on Tuesday, Smith proposed the use of a written juror questionnaire for voir dire.
Smith pointed to Trump's use of a social media post to intimidate court officials in a New York case last week.
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"At the same time, in light of the public attention that is expected, and the defendant's record of using public social media platforms in an intimidating manner—further evinced by events in a separate trial in New York last week—the Court should implement several of the standard measures frequently used in this District to protect the jury, and impose additional clear guidelines for use of information regarding potential jurors," the filing stated.
The special counsel argued that juror identities should be protected.
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"This limitation is consistent with this District's practice and Local Criminal Rule 24.1(b), which dictate that jurors' identifying information not be made public outside of the courtroom, and that in the courtroom, the Court and parties refer to jurors by number rather than name," the document stated.
"Given that the defendant—after apparently reviewing opposition research on court staff—chose to use social media to publicly attack a court staffer, there is cause for concern about what he may do with social media research on potential jurors in this case. It is therefore necessary for the Court to employ the limited restrictions described above," the special counsel added.
