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Trump Has Already Violated Judge Chutkin's Order - But in Georgia [1]
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Date: 2023-08-14
Last Friday, at a hearing with Trump’s lawyers, Judge Tanya Chutkan laid down the law:
[Chutkan] directed Trump and lawyers to “take special care” that their public statements in the case could not be seen as intimidating witnesses or prejudicing potential jurors, adding that the more “inflammatory statements” there are, the greater the urgency will be to go to trial to ensure an impartial jury. www.washingtonpost.com/…
Trump just violated that order — but he did it in the Georgia case, not the obstruction of Congress one:
Trump tells Georgia witness not to testify (Axios):
Former President Trump on Monday appeared to warn former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan against testifying before the Fulton County grand jury in the state's 2020 election probe. Driving the news: "I am reading reports that failed former Lt. Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Monday.
First off, this is the behavior of a six-year-old boy who, when caught stuffing beans up his nose, complains: “You only told me not to put peas up my nose!”
More seriously, much more seriously, this is outright witness intimidation, exactly the sort of behavior Judge Chutkan warned him against. I have little doubt Fanni Willis will consider adding such a charge to her growing list, but also of interest is what Judge Chutkan will do now. It’s true he didn’t try to intimidate a witness in the case before her (so far as we know; Jack Smith is arguing that Trump’s efforts in Georgia and elsewhere are part of his crimes), but he did violate the essence of her order, and almost certainly did it deliberately (see peas and beans, above).
It’s early in the day, not to mention early in the week. My initial thought is that Chutkan will let Willis speak first — it’s her case, after all — and decide what, if anything, to do afterwards. Your thoughts?
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/14/2187154/-Trump-Has-Already-Violated-Judge-Chutkin-s-Order-But-in-Georgia
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