A prominent Democrat is daring the judge in the Donald Trump January 6 case to jail the former president for contempt of court.
“The court must fully assert the rule of law during these proceedings, even if that requires threatening Trump with jail pending his trial. And if he continues to refuse to abide by the conditions of his release, it might be time to actually jail him,” former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich wrote in a Guardian column.
They note that Federal Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya warned former President Donald Trump that he could be jailed.
“I want to remind you that it is a crime to try to influence a juror or to threaten or attempt to bribe a witness or any other person who may have information about your case, or to retaliate against anyone for providing information about your case to the prosecution, or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” the judge said while calling him “Mr. Trump” in a not so overt insult to the fact Trump is the former president of the United States.
Donald Trump Threatens Political Opponents
Trump agreed to comply; however, he wrote ““IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” on Truth Social. He then attacked his former Vice President Mike Pence, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and Judge Tanya Chutkin, the judge assigned to his case.
Trump calls Smith “Deranged.” He says that Chutkin will not give him a fair trial.
“So now that I have full Subpoena Power because of the Freedom of Speech Sham Indictment by Crooked Joe Biden, Deranged Jack Smith, and the DOJ, it has just been reported that the Unselect January 6th Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs has illegally destroyed their Records and Documents. This is unthinkable, and the Fake Political Indictment against me must be immediately withdrawn. The system is Rigged & Corrupt, very much like the Presidential Election of 2020. We are a Nation in Decline!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Smith filed a motion for a protective order last week seeking to gag Donald Trump from using “public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.”
Reich contends that Trump should join “about 400,000 criminal defendants are in jail in the United States awaiting trial because they didn’t meet a condition of their release.”
Judge Issues Warning to Donald Trump
“I intend to ensure the orderly administration of justice in this case as I would with any other case,” Chutkan said in a Friday hearing on Smith’s motion. “The more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the jury pool or intimidate potential witnesses, the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial to ensure a jury pool from which we can select an impartial jury.”
Chutkan barred Trump court material during the discovery phase of the trial that are deemed “sensitive.”
Trump’s attorneys sought latitude for the former president to discuss his case amid the campaign season, but Chutkin refused to hear it.
“The existence of a political campaign will not have any bearing on my decision,” Chutkan said. “He’s a criminal defendant – he’s going to have restrictions like every single other defendant,” the judge said.
The Atlantic called Chutkan’s comment a shot across Donald Trump’s bow saying, “The effect of Chutkan’s courtroom comments was to put Trump on notice. If he continues to flout judicial warnings, she could place a more formal gag order on him, the ex-prosecutors said. And if he ignores that directive, she would likely issue additional warnings before considering a criminal-contempt citation. A further escalation… would be to hold a hearing and order Trump to show cause for why he should not be held in contempt.”
Said former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade: “Maybe she gives him a warning, and she gives him another chance and another chance, but eventually, her biggest hammer is to send him to jail.”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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