Updated 02:09 | Published at 01:16
Prosecutors want to legally prevent former US President Donald Trump from making inflammatory or threatening comments about witnesses, lawyers, judges and jurors in the case in which he is accused of trying to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Trump’s public comments threaten to intimidate subpoenas and those working on the case, according to special prosecutor Jack Smith and his associates, who cited Trump’s comments in a letter to the court.
“If you turn on me, I turn on you,” Trump has written on social media, for example, emphasizes the prosecutor, who wants to see a narrow and well-defined warning to Trump before the trial.
Prosecutors in the case have for weeks expressed concern over Trump’s verbal attacks. But Friday’s letter is the first formal request to be raised in court.
“Through his statements, the defendant threatens to undermine the integrity of these proceedings and harm the jurors,” prosecutors write.
But Trump shows no signs yet of toning down the rhetoric. Shortly after prosecutors filed the brief, he repeated claims that his political opponents have turned the FBI and Justice Department into political weapons.
“They leak, lie and lie and they won’t allow me to speak?”, Trump wrote in a post on his platform Truth Social, where he also called President Joe Biden “dishonest” and Smith “deranged.”
FACTS The four charges
The four-point indictment concerns Trump’s attempt to have the results of the 2020 presidential election annulled, and the crimes are described as conspiracy, among other things.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election through the use of knowingly false allegations of election fraud,” the 45-page indictment states.
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly tried to adjust the results after the 2020 presidential election in his favor. It culminated in the storming of the Capitol congress building on January 6, 2021. But before that, Trump is said to have tried to influence, among other things, election workers and elected officials in several states.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith says the storming of the Capitol was carried out by Trump supporters driven by his lies about election fraud. Inside the building, Congress was about to formally nominate Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election when Trump’s supporters filed in.
Several co-conspirators are named in the indictment, but not by name because they are not charged with any crimes.
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