Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann said the latest decision from the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals doesn't bode well for the former president.
The public is waiting for a decision from the same court on whether Donald Trump has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, but it ruled Tuesday that the gag order in the Jan. 6 election interference case still holds.
Trump had appealed Judge Tanya Chutkan's order, put in place after Trump posted social media messages aimed at potential witnesses. Chutkan even laughed at Trump's lawyer when he argued that the existing gag order was "working."
The most recent order says Trump doesn't have permission to post public statements attempting to intimidate anyone in the election interference case.
Speaking to MSNBC's Jen Psaki on Tuesday, Weissmann noted that Trump's appeal was heard by a panel of three judges — and not one publicly dissented to it. Trump then asked if the full court of 11 judges would hear it. They said, "no."
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"The fact that not one of the judges asked for a vote to record how the vote went doesn't necessarily mean that it was unanimous," explained Weissmann, who previously served as senior prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller's team.
"It definitely is a sign of the weakness of the case," he continued. "It could be that one of those judges who didn't necessarily agree with the decision understood that there were not enough votes and there was no reason to have a vote. It also could be because of their concern about security. It's very well known that Judge Chutkan has been threatened, and in fact, someone has been charged with threatening her life."
The other judges likely didn't want to deal with something similar.
Ultimately, he explained, "It isn't a good sign for Donald Trump that there wasn't anybody who was willing to say, we disagree with this, we want a vote. We do want people to put their names to it."
He also doubted that the Supreme Court would hear something like this when they already had an oral argument on Feb. 8 to hear the 14th Amendment case in Colorado.
See Weissmann's full comments in the video below or at the link.
The latest ruling by appeals court doesn’t bode well for Trump’s future: legal expertyoutu.be
