Judge Tanya Chutkan reinstated a gag order on Sunday night barring former President Donald Trump from attacking court staff, potential witnesses, and members of the prosecution team in the federal case against him for allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump responded by attacking Attorney General Bill Barr, a potential witness in the case, while continuing his public assault on Chutkan.
Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal election interference case, reinstated a partial gag order that had been approved then temporarily appealed in October as Justice Department prosecutors and Trump’s legal team debated the First Amendment grounds of the order. Trump took to Truth Social barely an hour later to attack the judge and former Attorney General Bill Barr, a potential witness in the case.
“I called Bill Barr Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN’T DO THE JOB. He just didn’t want to be Impeached, which the Radical Left Lunatics were preparing to do,” Trump wrote just 75 minutes after the gag order was reinstated. “Bill Barr is a LOSER!”
Trump went on to directly attack Judge Chutkan. “I have just learned that the very Biased, Trump Hating Judge in D.C., who should have RECUSED herself due to her blatant and open loathing of your favorite President, ME, has reimposed a GAG ORDER which will put me at a disadvantage against my prosecutorial and political opponents,” Trump wrote at 12:28 a.m., accusing the order of “unconstitutionally [taking] away my First Amendment Right of Free Speech, in the middle of my campaign for President.”
In another post early Monday morning, the former president called Chutkan “a TRUE TRUMP HATER.”
“Her Hatred of President DONALD J. TRUMP is so great that she has been diagnosed with a major, and incurable, case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!!!,” Trump wrote.
While Chutkan has yet to respond to the posts, she would not be the first Judge overseeing a Trump case to level penalties against the former president for violating court-ordered restrictions on his public statements.
Trump has already been fined twice, and threatened with jail, for violating a separate gag order imposed in New York’s civil fraud case against the former president. Judge Arthur Engoron fined Trump a total of $15,000 last week, accusing him of violating an order barring him from attacking court staff. Engoron first slapped Trump with a $5,000 penalty and threatened to revoke his bail after the former president failed to delete a copy of the Truth Social post attacking his clerk from his campaign website. He later added a second, $10,000 penalty after Trump appeared to once again attack a member of his staff while speaking to reporters outside of the courtroom.