Fed Prosecutors Press Trump Gag Order  09/30 09:16

   Federal prosecutors pressed their case Friday for a limited gag order on 
former President Donald Trump, citing what they said was a continuing pattern 
of incendiary and intimidating statements in the case charging him with 
scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors pressed their case Friday for a 
limited gag order on former President Donald Trump, citing what they said was a 
continuing pattern of incendiary and intimidating statements in the case 
charging him with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

   Special counsel Jack Smith's team earlier this month requested an order 
aimed at reining in Trump's attacks on prosecutors, potential witnesses and 
other people involved in the case. Trump's lawyers have objected to the 
request, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday set courtroom 
arguments for Oct. 16.

   In a motion Friday evening, prosecutors reiterated the need for an order on 
Trump's behavior.

   They said his attacks have continued since the initial Sept. 15 request, 
citing critical comments in a television interview about witnesses referenced 
in the indictment -- including former Attorney General William Barr -- as well 
as a social media post from last week in which he suggested that Mark Milley, 
the retiring chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had committed treason and 
should be executed.

   In addition, prosecutors noted an episode in South Carolina earlier this 
week in which he admired a Glock handgun during a visit to a gun store. Though 
a Trump spokesman initially claimed on social media that Trump had purchased 
the weapon, he later deleted the post and clarified that Trump had only 
indicated that he wanted to buy one.

   Despite that retraction, prosecutors wrote, Trump "re-posted a video of the 
incident" posted by one of his followers with a caption that suggested he had 
indeed bought the weapon.

   It was an example, they said, of Trump trying to benefit from incendiary 
actions but then avoid accountability by having others around him "feign 
retraction."

   "The defendant either purchased a gun in violation of the law and his 
conditions of release, or seeks to benefit from his supporters' mistaken belief 
that he did so," prosecutors said.

   Trump's lawyers earlier this week denounced the gag order request as an 
attempt to "unconstitutionally silence" his political speech. They called the 
request a "desperate attempt at censorship."

   Prosecutors rejected that characterization in their Friday night motion.

   "All it would limit is the defendant's use of his candidacy as a cover for 
making prejudicial public statements about this case -- and there is no 
legitimate need for the defendant, in the course of his campaign, to attack 
known witnesses regarding the substance of their anticipated testimony or 
otherwise engage in materially prejudicial commentary in violation of the 
proposed order," they wrote.

   The case is currently set for trial March 4, 2024, in federal court in 
Washington.

   Chutkan ruled against the Trump team on Wednesday when she refused a defense 
request to step aside from the case over comments she'd made in other 
sentencing hearings that the attorneys said called into question her 
impartiality. Chutkan said there was no reason for her to recuse.