As Trump wades his way through what is already the biggest mountain of legal trouble he has ever faced, a federal judge made things a little worse for the ex-president still when he delivered a ruling today in favor of the US Department of Justice that effectively banned the scandal-plagued ex-president from keeping, posting, or sharing any of the evidence collected in the classified document case that’s raging against him with the American public.
The ruling came at the request of DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith himself, as he sought to prevent the ex-president or his close confidant and codefendant Walt Nauta from making any of the evidence collected by prosecutors in the document case available to the public, as prosecutors share that information with Trump’s defense as part of discovery in the case.
This morning, CBS’s Scott MacFarlane discussed this development and dove deeper into the significance of this ruling against Donald Trump, explaining, “The judge has ordered today that Donald Trump not be able to share, post or disseminate the materials in his case that are being handed over from the Justice Department to his legal defense team.”
“He can’t just put it out there on Truth Social or share it with America. Again, this is not unexpected, but it’s important for any number of reasons,” MacFarlane told viewers, adding, “First of all, it’s an order restricting access to evidence in a criminal case involving a former US president. We are in unchartered waters in that sense.”
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In addition to barring the ex-president from posting any of this information to his public social media platform, the judge also ruled that Donald Trump is banned from physically holding onto any materials that are connected to the criminal trial.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart wrote in the ruling:
Defendants shall only have access to Discovery Materials under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff. Defendants shall not retain copies of Discovery Material.”
While there wasn’t a specific explanation included in Judge Reinhart’s ruling, the decision comes as the New York Times reported on the fear that Donald Trump may very likely threaten to go public with the classified information he stole, as a means to essentially blackmail the US federal government into dropping all charges lodged against him.
Trump has, as expected, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him, as he continues to shout his so-called “innocence” from the rooftops in every public setting he can think of. This includes multiple charges pertaining to violations of the Espionage Act and charges accusing Donald Trump of purposefully retaining documents, materials, and information that presented a risk to national security.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
