According to breaking news from Politico’s Kyle Cheney, prosecutors with the United States Department of Justice have now formally requested an order of protection against Donald J. Trump, following a public and openly threatening social media post made by the scandal-plagued former president yesterday afternoon, just one day after his bombshell arraignment on criminal charges related to his efforts to tamper with the 2020 presidential election.
On Thursday, former President Donald Trump was formally arraigned on his fourth bombshell, historical criminal indictment — the third to come down on his head by Garland-appointed DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith.
The arraignment was just Trump’s most recent appearance before a court of law, this time on a variety of criminal charges lodged against him by Special Counsel Smith, on behalf of the US Depart of Justice, from his alleged crimes related to his efforts to overthrow the 2020 United States presidential election, including the infamous, deadly January 6th Capitol attack.
This was Donald Trump’s third formal, criminal arraignment.
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On Friday afternoon, Trump took to his Truth Social platform, where he penned this cryptic and openly threatening message to anyone who dares to “go after” him — more specifically, Special Counsel Jack Smith and his prosecutors:
IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
By Friday evening, the Justice Department proposed a protective order on the basis of the ex-president’s Truth Social post, arguing that this threatening message along with additional similar messages Trump is likely to make in the near future “could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses.”
Kyle Cheney reported on Twitter:
👀 Prosecutors just proposed a protective order referencing Trump’s Truth Social post from earlier tonight, saying it clearly references other parties/participants in the case pic.twitter.com/COz6jB2P06
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 5, 2023
The DOJ’s request for an order of protection reads:
All the proposed order seeks to prevent is the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public.
Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him. And in recent days, regarding this case, the defendant has issued multiple posts—either specifically or by implication—including the following, which the defendant posted just hours ago.”
Justice Department prosecutors further included a screenshot of Donald Trump’s offending, threatening Truth Social post before going on to warn, “If the defendant were to begin issuing public posts using details—or, for example, grand jury transcripts—obtained in discovery here, it could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.”
Lawyer Bradley P. Moss took to Twitter on the heels of this development with a deeper explanation regarding the DOJ’s move, explaining that this request for a protection order was “*not* a gag order,” but rather “a limited protective order tied to discovery they were going to be seeking anyway.”
“This allows DOJ to notify the court of what Trump is doing without yet having to deal with the tricky legal question of whether this is a violation,” Moss explained.
In addition to Jack Smith’s indictment on 2020 election charges, the Special Counsel has also lodged two other indictments against Donald Trump relating to the infamous stolen government document scandal. Earlier this year, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg made US history with the first-ever criminal indictment to be handed down against a former or sitting United States president and Fulton County DA Fani Willis is reportedly weighing an additional indictment against Donald Trump for his alleged election crimes in the state of Georgia.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
