Appeals court shoots down Trump lawyers' request to quash gag order

Throughout former President Donald Trump's many legal issues and courtroom appearances, judges have placed partial or full gag orders to prevent him from saying certain things about his cases.

According to USA Today, unfortunately for the former president and his attorneys, an appeals court "refused Donald Trump’s request for a do-over on a gag order imposed on the 2024 Republican frontrunner in his federal election interference case."

The decision was announced on Tuesday.

The request to reconsider the gag order was one of two instances, and now both requests to reconsider them have been quashed by the courts.

USA Today noted:

Tuesday's decision represents another loss as Trump tries to litigate the ground rules for how the federal election interference trial, scheduled to begin March 4, will be conducted. He is charged with trying to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag orders early on after Trump made several comments on his Truth Social platform against Special Counsel Jack Smith, the judge, and others involved in the case.

Chutkan made clear at the time that Trump was not allowed to "target" anyone in the courtroom, or any reasonably foreseeable witness" in his social media posts.

The former president and his lawyers appealed the decision and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld most of the original order.

USA Today noted:

Everyone involved in the case was prohibited from commenting publicly on the special counsel, court staff or their relatives with the intent to interfere, according to Judge Patricia Millett's opinion, writing for a three-judge panel.

Trump and his lawyers then requested that the full circuit court, which involved roughly a dozen judges, reconsider. The judges include, "Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judges Karen Henderson, Millett, Cornelia Pillard, Robert Wilkins, Gregory Katsas, Neomi Rao, Justin Walker, Michelle Childs, Florence Pan and Bradley Garcia."

For his part, even though his legal team was shot down by the appeals court, Trump presumably isn't too worried about it overall.

After storming through Iowa and New Hampshire, he remains the only viable GOP presidential candidate, and the polls show him gaining in momentum and fundraising.

Some polls have indicated that his supporters would vote for him even if he were hypothetically sitting in a jail cell.

Legal experts have offered mixed predictions on whether or not Trump will be convicted on any of the 91 charges he faces. Only time will tell.