Judge Strikes Major Blow To Jack Smith's Case, Upholds Trump's Right To Free Speech But With Limits

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a ruling Friday morning that for the most part supported the arguments of 45th President Donald J. Trump's legal team. The ruling pertained to a request for a protective order over evidence in the case, in which the judge gave prosecutors a narrow win, letting them define "sensitive" materials more broadly than normal but upholding Trump's right to free speech.

According to Just The News, Chutkan ruled that the prosecution did not meet the burden of proof for the protective order it requested, but she did give the Trump team notice that the 45th President and 2024 GOP frontrunner needs to be careful about what he says and publishes about the ongoing case.

"Mr. Trump, like any American, has a right to free speech," Chutkan said. "But that right is not absolute."

Special Counsel Jack Smith reportedly requested the protective order after Trump posted to Truth Social "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!" as reported by Politico, even citing the post in the text of the request.

Smith wrote, "All the proposed order seeks to prevent is the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public. Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him. And in recent days, regarding this case, the defendant has issued multiple posts—either specifically or by implication—including the following, which the defendant posted just hours ago."

Trump attorney John Lauro argued that Smith's request was "extraordinary" according to Fox News. "We are in uncharted waters, we have a defendant running for president and his opponent has the DOJ bringing charges against him," Lauro said. 

Chutkan replied, "The fact that he's tuning a political campaign has to yield to the orderly administration of justice."

"The defendant's desire to respond to political opponents has to yield," Chutkan added. "There are limits. This is a criminal case. The need for this case to proceed in a normal order means there are going to be limits on the defendant's speech." 

She claimed, "I cannot and will not factor into my decisions the effect it will have on a campaign for either side."

President Trump's attorney countered with an argument that seems self-evident, "Everything that we do here now is under a political microscope, unfortunately, because of what the government has done," he said. "There has to be fair play here. They haven’t even described the discovery is it one terabyte, is it 3 terabytes. You can’t ignore the fact that there’s a campaign."

"He will get his rights," Chutkan insisted. "The existence of a political campaign is not going to have any bearing on my decision I intend to keep that out of my decision."