An appeals court panel has put a temporary hold on a gag order imposed on former President Donald Trump in a Washington D.C. election case.
A federal appeals court on Friday put a temporary freeze on a gag order against former President Donald Trump, whose legal team filed an emergency motion Thursday to lift the gag order while his appeal plays out before the court.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order on Nov. 3, requiring that the gag order imposed on President Trump by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan last month is “administratively stayed pending further order of the court.”
“The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the appellate panel said in its decision.
The move by the appeals court is the latest in the gag order saga, which was triggered by a request by special counsel Jack Smith and imposed when Judge Chutkan issued the order on Oct. 17.
President Trump has been outspoken in the past about Mr. Smith, who is leading the election interference case against him, and others.
The former president has pleaded not guilty in the case.
‘Central to the American Fabric’
The gag order prohibited President Trump from making any public statements or directing others to make any public statements that “target” the prosecution and defense legal teams, court staff, and supporting personnel, and any “reasonably foreseeable” potential witnesses or their testimony in the case.
President Trump sought relief from the gag order from Judge Chutkan herself. While she initially paused the order to give both parties a chance to present briefings on the topic, she later reimposed the gag order on Oct. 30.
Then, in a bid to lift the gag order, lawyers for President Trump filed an emergency motion on Thursday, arguing in their court filing that the gag order violates the former president’s First Amendment rights and those of “over 100 million Americans who listen to him.”
By Tom Ozimek
