![CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig ripped the Department of Justice (DOJ) over their initial proposed gag order for former President Donald Trump. [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Screenshot-2023-11-21-at-10.59.47-AM-e1700582444813.png "CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig ripped the Department of Justice (DOJ) over their initial proposed gag order for former President Donald Trump. [Screenshot CNN]")
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig ripped the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday over their initial proposal for a gag order targeting former President Donald Trump in the ongoing 2020 federal election interference case.
District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a gag order in October that blocks Trump from criticizing Special Counsel Jack Smith or his staff, the defense counsel or their staff, court staff and “any reasonably foreseeable witnesses or the substance of their testimony.”
The order is currently on hold pending an appeal.
On Monday, judges questioned Smith’s team about the order’s “troubling” lack of free speech protections.
The original version of the order requested by the DOJ, however, went even further. That document would have barred Trump from criticizing former Vice President Mike Pence — who at the time was still running against him for the Republican nomination — and from making statements about Washington, D.C.; its jury pool and the federal government, including the Department of Justice and Biden administration.
Honig called the original proposal “ridiculous.”
“[S]ome of this plays into Trump’s hands. I think DOJ comes in for some criticism here, because their original proposal to the judge … was ridiculous. It was way overbroad. It was way overly sensitive. They said, ‘He can’t say anything about anybody.’ That was never going to stand,” Honig said Tuesday on CNN. “Give Judge Chutkan credit. She looked at that and said, ‘No way.’ She substantially narrowed it down. Now it’s probably going to be narrowed down a little more.”
“One other thing I feel obliged to point out: the Federal Court of Appeals yesterday gave us a live audio stream of the proceedings, so we could go on our computer and listen to it. Note to the district court: the sky did not fall. We got to see this. We all benefited from it. Let the cameras in. At least give us an audio feed,” he added.
Trump also faces a separate gag order in his New York civil fraud case, though an appeals judge temporarily lifted that order, citing free speech concerns.