Judge agrees to temporarily lift gag order in Trump’s 2020 election interference case

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The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case has agreed to temporarily lift a narrow gag order on the former president.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan had put the order in place to limit Mr Trump’s public statements about the federal criminal case, in which he is accused of illegally attempting to undo his 2020 loss.

It comes on the same day that Mr Trump was fined $5,000 by a New York Judge for violating a separate gag order in his ongoing civil lawsuit.

The gag order issued by judge Chutkan on Monday barred the former president from making public statements targeting prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses.

It has been the most serious restriction a court has placed on Mr Trump and his inflammatory rhetoric, which has been a recent staple of his court room appearances and campaign to return to the White House.

The Friday ruling allows Mr Trump’s lawyers time to prove why his comments should not be restricted as the case heads toward trial.

Lawyers for Mr Trump previously said that the restrictions were “egregious and intolerable” adding that the former president “has not unlawfully threatened or harassed anyone” and that prosecutors had not “come close” to justifying the order, The Associated Press reported.

"By restricting President Trump’s speech, the Gag Order eviscerates the rights of his audiences, including hundreds of millions of American citizens who the Court now forbids from listening to President Trump’s thoughts on important issues," the defense wrote, per AP.

Mr Trump, who has previously used rallies and social media to villify members of the prosecution, also described the gag order as unconstitutional and has used it to amplify his claims that he is being politically persecuted.

The former president has denied any wrongdoing in the case charging him with illegally scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss to president Joe Biden.

On Friday Judge Chutkan ordered special counsel Jack Smith’s team to file by Wednesday any opposition to Mr Trump’s bid for a longer pause on the gag order pending appeal. Jury selection for the trail against the former president and 18 co-defendants, began on Friday morning.

Elsewhere on Friday, the judge in Mr Trump’s civil fraud trial fined the former president $5,000 and threatened to throw him in jail for breaking a seperate gag order, imposed in the first week of the New York proceedings.

On 3 October, Judge Arthur Engoron banned Mr Trump from “posting, emailing or speaking publicly” about any members of his court staff, after the former president made a post on Truth Social attacking his law clerk and levelling baseless claims against her.

He was ordered to take the post down, however, while he deleted the post from Truth Social it remained on his website. It has now been deleted.