Trump gag order partially lifted in hush money case ahead of first presidential debate
Trump gag order partially lifted in hush money case ahead of first presidential debate
A New York judge lifted parts of a gag order imposed on former President Donald Trump in his criminal hush money case.
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Blows my mind how much they bend over for this scumbag.
But I recall reading that the DAs office was in favor of a partial lifting of the order. There is no reason to keep the order in place for witnesses, for example.
Trump's lawyers wanted a full cancellation of the order and as far as I can tell the DA's side got everything it asked for and Trump's side only got the things the DA agreed to.
There is no reason to keep the order in place for witnesses, for example.
I’d argue there is plenty of reason to keep it in place for witnesses until all appeals have played out…
As I understand it, though, the point of the gag order was to prevent the witnesses from being intimidated before their testimony. The trial is over, and there will be no more testimony. So a gag order on them is no longer necessary to protect the integrity of the trial process.
The trial is over, and there will be no more testimony
I see - I assumed wrongly they would need to testify again in a retrial if an appeal was won.
Wasn’t there also talk of declaring a mistrial at some point? Would they testify again in that case?
Not only that - he's got many other criminal counts still pending. The potential witnesses to those crimes are paying close attention to how much protection these witnesses get in the wake of their testimony.
Lift this gag order, Trump goes on a rampage, witnesses get an increased level of threats or, god forbid, actual violence - that is a chilling effect on witnesses in all of Trump's other cases, and to a lesser extent, for witnesses in any future cases involving any defendant.
It's not this judge's job to police those cases, though. The other judges can apply whatever orders they need in order to protect the integrity of the trials they oversee. But this trial is over.
Like Judge Cannon, right?
Judge Cannon has the ability to protect her case through orders like this. But it seems all she wants to do is protect her little Donnie-kins from that meanie Jack Smith....
Not to mention retaliation; I would fear for my life if I was a witness and my name was made public for this case, ever.
Not only that, it sends a message to witnesses in ongoing cases that they will never be safe.
a gag order on them is no longer necessary to protect the integrity of the trial process.
But still necessary to minimize the risk of his crazed cult following violently targeting the witnesses he continues to demonize.
Upholding that protection is ESPECIALLY important when it comes to a widely viewed event such as a presidential debate.
The fear (a rational fear, I think) is that if they didn't, they'd potentially have an armed rebellion to deal with. Yea, it's shitty for this asshat to get gift after fucking gift but if there was any appearance of him being targeted he'd never fucking shut up about it.
I'm done with their bullshit and I feel, for democracy's sake, we should just seize all the family assets to discourage future ass hattery and deal with the consequences now... but I also do appreciate my relatives not living in a war zone.
If the rule of law leads terrorists to attack institutions, then we need to stop those terrorists with force. We should not bend over backwards to avoid angering the terrorists.
I think you're being too black and white. The purpose of all this society shit isn't to have laws that are justly applied - it's to (ideally, late stage capitalism is fucking is here) provide the best life we can to as many people as we can. Being murdered, robbed or a bundle of other things fucking sucks so we use the law to guarantee (again, suckinh at this right now) safety and stability.
If someone did a little asshattery I don't want to start a civil war - as a parallel, if someone runs a red light and we could either let them go unpunished or start a high speed chase, I'm going to favor the former. There is a line somewhere, there is some amount of petty treason someone could commit and some quantity of armed fanatics backing them where I'd say "we should just not risk it."
Basically, sometimes it's optimal to be non-confrontational even if it feels shitty.
"Give us everything we want or we will stage an armed uprising, also we really really want to do an armed uprising and have been openly saying so for years"
Doesn't seem like a group worth placating
Nah, fuck that noise. I don't want to start a civil war, either, but I'll be more than happy to end one. You're conceding ground to effective terrorism.