Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Pauses Trump Gag Order

A federal appeals court temporarily paused the gag order against former President Donald Trump in his 2020 election case on Friday.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia temporarily paused the order issued Oct. 17 by District Judge Tanya Chutkan to allow time to consider Trump’s request for a longer freeze on its enforcement pending appeal. The court ordered Trump’s appeal to be expedited, requesting briefing from Trump’s legal team by Nov. 8 and scheduling oral arguments for Nov. 20.

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Trump’s Lawyers Argue Judge’s Failure to Recuse Will Cause ‘Irreparable Damage’ to Judicial System for ‘Generations’

Former president Donald Trump’s lawyers doubled down on their call for the judge hearing his 2020 election case to recuse in a Sunday court filing, arguing that her failure to do so would cause “irreparable damage” to the judicial system for “generations to come.”

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office made a fiery defense of U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, in a Friday filing, where they slammed Trump’s recusal request as having “no valid basis” and accused him of cherry-picking statements that don’t actually show “improper bias.” Trump based the initial call last week for Chutkan to recuse on remarks she made during sentencing hearings for two Jan. 6 defendants that allegedly suggested Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned.

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Trump Legal Team Asks Jan. 6 Case Judge to Recuse Herself

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday filed a motion seeking the recusal of Judge Tanya Chutkan, asserting that her prior statements suggest a bias against the former president.

Specifically, the ex-commander-in-chief’s attorneys asserted that prior statements she made that they saw “create a perception of prejudgment incompatible with our justice system,” CBS reported. “Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned. Such statements, made before this case began and without due process, are inherently disqualifying.”

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Commentary: Forget ‘Contempt of Court,’ What About ‘Contempt of Public’?

We have all heard about contempt of court and contempt of Congress. They are offenses for which one may be fined or jailed. But what about contempt of public? What’s the penalty for that?

I don’t know that you will find contempt of public in the statute books. If not I offer up the phrase free and for nothing to the bureaucrats who look after such things. I think it should be added to our vocabulary if not to our code of laws. It names a grievous assault on the community. By making a travesty of the rules and institutions that undergird our social life, contempt of public threatens to undermine that essential if often hard-to-define societal lubricant: trust.

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Obama Judge Sides with January 6 Committee, Denies Trump’s Executive Privilege Claims

In a 34-page ruling issued Tuesday night, D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Donald Trump’s request for injunctive relief to prevent the January 6 Select Committee from obtaining privileged information currently housed at the National Archives. In August, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the committee, demanded “a wide range of White House records of the previous administration . . . [related to] how the January 6th events fit in the continuum of efforts to subvert the rule of law, overturn the results of the November 3, 2020 election, or otherwise impede the peaceful transfer of power.” 

The National Archives notified the committee a few days later it would comply with the request for documents; Joe Biden twice denied Trump’s claims of executive privilege, something without precedent, which Chutkan noted: “This case presents the first instance . . . in which a former President asserts executive privilege over records for which the sitting President has refused to assert executive privilege.”

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