Trump team touts appeals court limiting gag order in D.C. case

Former President Donald Trump's campaign on Thursday touted an appeals court decision upholding an existing gag order on the ex-commander-in-chief, but significantly narrowing its scope.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Judge Tanya Chutkan's gag order was overly broad and "sweeps in more protected speech than is necessary."

"Today, the D.C. Circuit Court panel, with each judge appointed by a Democrat President, determined that a huge part of Judge Chutkan’s extraordinarily overbroad gag order was unconstitutional," said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. "President Trump will continue to fight for the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans to hear from the leading Presidential candidate at the height of his campaign. The Biden-led witch hunts against President Trump and the American people will fail."

Specifically the panel forbade Trump from commenting on "known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding," which Chutkan had originally ordered. 

The court did revise her directive to prevent Trump from making comments "made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with" the case. The panel further removed special counsel Jack Smith from the list of protected individuals.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.