U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan showed that she is not afraid to issue a more severe sanction against former President Donald Trump if he violates her protective order, said former federal prosecutor Harry Litman.
Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, is overseeing the former president’s January 6 case and established limits Friday morning on what Trump can discuss publicly regarding evidence included in the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation.
The protective order is more limited than the one originally sought by federal prosecutors, which asked to prevent the public release of all evidence turned over to Trump’s defense team as part of the DOJ’s allegation that the former president attempted to remain in power after losing in the 2020 election.
Instead, only material deemed “sensitive” will be covered by the protective order, although Chutkan established that any witness interviews and recordings included in the investigation are also prohibited from being shared outside of Trump’s defense team.
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Special Counsel Jack Smith originally argued for the protective order, given Trump’s past statements on social media regarding the “legal matters pending against him.” Prosecutors particularly pointed at a Truth Social post from late last week, where Trump wrote, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
The former president was warned by Chutkan on Friday that any repeated “inflammatory” statements regarding his latest indictment could lead to a speedy trial in the 2020 election case.
“I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case,” Chutkan told Trump lawyer John Lauro at the hearing, according to a report from Politico. “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”
It’s unclear what those measures could look like from Chutkan, but as Litman discussed while appearing on MSNBC Friday, the judge could go as far as to arrest Trump if he does pose a threat to the integrity of the case.
“At the end of the day, the big hammer she has, of course, but doesn’t want to deploy it early or at all if they could help it, is putting him in jail,” Litman told the network.
“But they know that at the end of the day, it is her courtroom, it’s her witnesses to worry about and it is her process to take account of,” he continued. “And she will, I think, she showed today, be unafraid, if he pushed her to the wall, of responding with the most severe sanction.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all four counts related to the DOJ’s investigation, and has claimed that Smith’s case against him is another form of election interference ahead of his 2024 bid. The former president’s attorney also complained to Chutkan during Friday’s hearing that the rules in place regarding when and where Trump is allowed to review the evidence against him will only “bog” down the defense team.
“In 40 years of practice I’ve never been in a white-collar case where counsel has to sit next to a client and literally babysit to make sure they don’t violate a protective order,” Lauro said.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign team via email Friday for comment on the hearing.