'Death knell': Analysts discuss 'very real concern' with Trump 'political speech' without gag order

20 November 2023

During Monday's episode of CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, guest host Pamela Brown spoke with former White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah Griffin and former United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic Norm Eisen about the issue of ex-President Donald Trump's rhetoric if gag orders are not in place amid his ongoing legal troubles.

Brown played a clip of an exchange between a Trump lawyer and DC Judge Patricia Millett what the attorney called Trump's "core political speech." The judge questioned his sentiment, pointing to the possibility the MAGA hopeful's rhetoric is actually "political speech aimed at derailing or corrupting the criminal justice process."

The CNN host asked Griffin what she thought of the conversation.

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The View co-host replied, "Well can we take a step back and think about how remarkable it is that this discussion's even being had. This is testing our laws in a way that they never have been before, in the sense that you have likely the Republican nominee indicted on felony charges and in a courtroom while he's campaigning for president. So these are questions that haven't legally been challenged. But I completely understand what Donald Trump's attorney is trying to do here. Trump, his only option this campaign cycle is basically to campaign from the courtroom. With the multiple cases he has, it's going to keep him off the campaign trail with many court dates. Some of these will line up right ahead of Super Tuesday. So he needs to be able to use his social media, talk about things in a way and define the enemy, being the judge, those coming against him in these cases. But he also needs to use it to look strong and appear strong. So this is something he knows being silenced in these cases is a death knell for him. He needs to be heard. He needs to appear strong to his supporters and like he's gonna win this when it's unclear if he will."

Brown said, "We've seen him fundraise off this and so forth. Norm, the judges, they seem ready to reinstate the gag order, but with some leeway for Trump to attack [U.S. Department of Justice special counsel] Jack Smith. What do you make of that?"

Eisen replied, "Well, we've known all along that while the law favors the gag order, the place where the toughest judgments have to be made is with criticizing the Biden administration and the Department of Justice. And Jack Smith, of course, although he's special counsel, he's very independent, he is a part of the Department of Justice. I think those kinds of accommodations are reasonable. Above all, we have to protect the judge, we have to protect the witnesses, and we have to protect the jury. So, if the order has to yield a little bit there, that is a reasonable compromise to make sure that justice can operate smoothly in this case."

Brown added, "And we just heard the exchange about core political speech versus criminal speech. The judge raised, Alyssa, the potential for Trump's rhetoric to cause violence. They brought up the threats against Judge Chutkan. How real is this threat?"

Griffin said, "Well listen, we live in a moment of heightened political violence. We know that from January 6th. We know that from situations that preceded that. But I think that's a very real concern, and the other piece of what you played earlier, this kind of soft witness intimidation. We kind of have a sense of who the players are who are going to be likely called to testify in this case. [Ex-Vice President] Mike Pence, case in point, somebody who saying something as vague as, 'I hope he does the right thing,' he knows that tens of millions of his supporters are listening to that, and they're going to put pressure in whatever way they may on Mike Pence. And we all saw how that culminated on January 6th."

Brown emphasized, "Yep, we did, in the ways they were chanting "Hang Mike Pence."

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Have to protect the judge': Analysts discuss 'very real concern' of Trump speech without gag orderyoutu.be

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