90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #2237

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Girls With Guns

The imposition of a gag order on Trump means a judge can decide what the GOP front-runner can and cannot say in a presidential campaign.

A remarkable thing happened on Monday in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a gag order effectively prohibiting Trump, currently the leading GOP candidate for president, from defending himself in public ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The gag order means Trump cannot speak publicly about the trial, potential witnesses, court personnel, or Special Counsel Jack Smith, the federal prosecutor who requested the gag order and characterized it as “modest” and “permissible.”

As my colleague Tristan Justice pointed out in these pages yesterday, that means Trump is barred from campaigning against his chief political opponent, which isn’t just President Joe Biden but the entire federal government, especially the Justice Department.

It also means there’s a potentially limitless number of things Trump could say on the campaign trail that would violate the gag order. Julie Kelly, who was in the courtroom Monday, noted on X (formerly Twitter) that there was an entire debate about whether it would be appropriate to allow Trump to use the phrase “Crooked Joe Biden.” A reporter for OANN relayed an exchange between Chutkan and Trump’s defense attorney about whether Trump could call Smith a “thug.” Chutkan, an Obama appointee with a long track record of politically charged Jan. 6 rulings, said she didn’t think such language was “necessary to advance a political campaign,” as if she’s any more competent to decide what sort of campaign rhetoric is necessary than she is to assess the value of Mar-a-Lago.

But set aside the insanity of a federal judge telling a leading presidential candidate — or any political candidate — what they can and cannot say on the campaign trail, as if judges are now the supreme arbiters of American political discourse. The gag order just underscores how insane and farcical this entire trial is.

Recall that Smith didn’t indict Trump on charges that he incited a riot on Jan. 6 or that he committed treason — nothing as concrete as that. He indicted Trump for expressing his opinion that the 2020 election was stolen. You might think it’s crazy that Trump thinks he won in 2020, but millions of Americans believe it — and they are free to say so thanks to the First Amendment. Trump, too, should be free to say it as often and as loudly as he likes. As Jonathan Turley said when Trump was indicted back in August, “If you take a red pen to all of the material presumptively protected by the First Amendment, you can reduce much of the indictment to haiku.”

The actual charges Trump faces are conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against...

Visage à trois #1787

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #1389

Visage à trois #1786

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #1388

Judge Gags Donald Trump from ‘Publicly Targeting’ Prosecutor, Judge in J6 Case

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sided with prosecutors on Monday to place a gag order on former President Donald Trump in the case related to January 6.

The gag order blocks Trump from comments “publicly targeting” the judge, special counsel Jack Smith, and “any other court personnel.” Trump is “absolutely prohibited as well” from issuing statements about their families, the Washington Post reported:

Even before the order was issued, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro said they would appeal any such order, as it would affect important free speech principles, particularly for a leading candidate for president.

Trump “can argue that this prosecution is politically motivated,” the judge said, but he cannot disparage the prosecutor by calling him a thug or “vilify and implicitly encourage violence against public servants who are simply doing their jobs.”

She is also barring Trump and all parties from making statements about witnesses in the case.

Smith brought four counts against Trump in the case on August 1. They include:Count 1 – “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States”- 18 U.S.C. § 371
Count 2 – “Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding” – 18 U.S.C. § 1512 (k)
Count 3 – “Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding” – 18 U.S.C. § 1512 (c)
Count 4 – “Conspiracy Against Rights” – 18 U.S.C § 241

Trump could serve a maximum of 55 years in prison, and could technically face the death penalty under Count 4.

Smith has aimed for a January 2, 2024, trial date during an election year and less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

The Trump campaign said in a statement in response to the judge’s decision:

Today’s decision is an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy by Crooked Joe Biden, who was granted the right to muzzle his political opponent, the leading candidate for the Presidency in 2024, and the most popular political leader in America, President Donald J. Trump. President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people’s right to support him, and to keep our country free of the chains of weaponized and targeted law enforcement.

The case is United States v. Trump, No. 1:23-cr-257-TSC in the...