Federal Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday rejected special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order against Donald Trump in the classified documents case, saying that prosecutors’ efforts to confer with the defendant was “wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy.”
From the article:
“In a brief order, Cannon slammed prosecutors for not following the court’s rules by failing to meaningfully confer with Trump’s defense lawyers about a potential gag order before making the request.”
Maybe it’s just me but this sounds an awful lot like she’s denying the motion because the prosecutors…didn’t ask the Trump team for permission to file the motion? Am I reading that right? The prosecution needs permission from the defense to file a motion for a gag order?
Lawyers, please tell me that Cannon is once again just being extraordinarily stupid. This can’t be normal, right? To me, this is like a domestic abuse victim having to ask the abuser for the right get a restraining order.
As I understand it, they don’t need to ask permission, but they need to make an actual attempt at a diplomatic resolution before making the formal request. If that doesn’t go to their liking, then they would speak to the judge.
It should have been a formality, because in all likelihood, the defense would have politely told the prosecutors to get fucked, but they really shouldn’t have skipped that step.
Your honor, I have a hundred examples of Trump violating gag orders from/checks notes/ the past 2 weeks. Asking them would be an insult in the first place.
Maybe it’s a good way to test the waters to add to their concrete examples of bias.
It’s not like they expect the gag order to be followed or enforced anyway. Judge Merchan has enough issues with that, and we already know Cannon will have less than no interest.
This is what “justice” is for the rich. The rest of us would be serving time in double digits by now. They just get the judges in their pockets to pull strings.
This is what leads me to worry you’re oversimplifying something. Is it cool if we avoid the generalizations here? We can all confidently say Mr Trump isn’t a very upstanding cretin, but don’t let him take your rep down.
It really depends on what these rules are