Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion on Friday that, if granted, would effectively bar President Donald Trump from criticizing him, President Joe Biden, and other deep state bureaucrats for their hyperpartisan prosecution of his First Amendment right to claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
“Through his statements, the defendant threatens to undermine the integrity of these proceedings and prejudice the jury pool, in contravention of the ‘undeviating rule’ that in our justice system a jury’s verdict is to ‘be induced only by evidence and argument in open court, and not by any outside influence,’” Smith wrote in the motion to D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
Under Smith’s proposal, chatter about the high-profile case would be legal for everyone, including President Joe Biden, but not Trump himself. The jury pool, judges, and others involved would hear campaign commentary from corporate media and Biden about the case. They would not, however, be privy to any takes from Trump, whose primary campaign strategy thus far is to repeatedly call attention to the weaponization of the federal government.
Smith paints his radical demands for Trump’s muzzling as “modest, permissible restrictions” that might be applied in any routine federal criminal case. This, however, is no routine case. It’s a partisan indictment led by bureaucrats handpicked by Trump’s Democrat replacement and 2024 rival that has quickly become one of the most egregious examples of sweeping state abuse this nation has ever seen.
Even corporate media like the Washington Post acknowledge Smith’s latest
