A federal judge on Monday issued a gag order on former President Donald Trump, limiting what he can say about special counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution into his alleged attempt to subvert in the 2020 presidential election.

The order restricts Trump’s ability to publicly target court personnel, potential witnesses, or the special counsel and his staff. The order did not impose restrictions on disparaging comments about Washington, DC, – where the jury will take place – or certain comments about the Justice Department at large, both of which the government requested.

“This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said. “This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice.”

“His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their jobs,” the judge added.

  • nichtsowichtig@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    hello, I’m not a native english speaker and I know two distinct meaning of the word “gag” and neither of them make sense in this context. so what does “gag order” mean?

    • HipPriest@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’m guessing the 2 uses you already know are ‘joke’ and ‘to retch/nearly vomit’?

      Another meaning of ‘gag’ is to physically tie something around their mouth to stop them from speaking (like in films when people get material or tape in their mouths to muffle their cries for help in a kidnap scene? That material would be the ‘gag’)

      Obviously in this instance it’s not a literal gag, although I’m sure there’s plenty of people who wish it could be. A ‘gagging order’ is a metaphor for not being able to speak about things

    • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Think of it as a “you cannot talk about something” order. So a gag is something put in a person’s mouth to keep them from talking. So he is not allowed to talk about a specific subject (in this case parts of the case specifically things he has said that could be considered threatening or attempting to influence witnesses or jurors) so he has been “gaged”

      And in case you are wondering how the fuck you get him to shut up. If he violates the order he can be “held in contempt of court” which means that you were legally told to do something and you didn’t. It can be punished with fines and/or jail time. Which may not deter him.