The former POTUS is threatening to go to SCOTUS.
An emergency filing by Donald Trump on Thursday is pressing a federal appeals court to lift the gag order placed on him in his criminal case in D.C. to attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election — and if he's denied he plans to go straight to the Supreme Court.
“No court in American history has imposed a gag order on a criminal defendant who is actively campaigning for public office — let alone the leading candidate for president of the United States,” the lawyers wrote in their late-night petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
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"That centuries long practice was broken on Oct. 17, 2023, when the district court entered its opinion and order... muzzling President Trump's core political speech during his president campaign," according to the papers.
He's requesting that a decision for a stay be made by Nov. 10, and if denied he plans to take his silent beef to the highest court in the land.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance appeared on MSNBC with Alex Wagner to weigh in on the 11th-hour filing.
"It's a little bit of complicated legal maneuvering, and ultimately it could go up to the Supreme Court if, as I think most people expect, this appeal will not be particularly productive for Trump in the Court of Appeals," she said.
Still, Vance made it known that this motion is actually substantive and potentially pivotal.
"So there is a difference between motions that ultimately may not help a defendant, and motions that are frivolous," she explained, and said there are legitimate issues that the court will consider. "And this one isn't frivolous."
But the merit of calling out the judge for changing the record of history barring him from blabbing freely is one that Joyce points out is only because nobody who has run for the highest office in the land has ever been gagged by a judge.
It may be that Trump's lawyers have made the argument that "no court has never imposed a gag order on a leading presidential candidate" but that is because a "leading presidential candidate has never been under indictment while they have been running before."
