US: Judge warns Trump not to threaten witnesses in 2020 election subversion case

A federal judge on Friday granted former US president Donald Trump leeway to publicly share some non-sensitive evidence that will be used in his trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, but she also warned him to tread carefully about making inflammatory public statements.

“Even arguably ambiguous statements by the parties or their counsel — if they can be reasonably be interpreted to intimidate witnesses or to prejudice potential jurors — can threaten the process," US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said on Friday.

“I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case. I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”

Chutkan's warning came at a federal court hearing on Friday where prosecutors and Trump's lawyers hashed out disagreements over how much evidence in the case Trump can share with the public.

Chutkan's decision to permit Trump to share some non-sensitive material went against the objections of prosecutors, who pointed to threatening messages Trump posted last week on social media as evidence that he might try to use details of the confidential evidence to intimidate witnesses.

The judge ruled that the government had not met its burden to show why all of the evidence should be subject to a "protective order," which safeguards evidence from being shared with the public in order to prevent witness intimidation or tainting a jury pool.

However, she warned that Trump is nevertheless subject to release conditions which ban him from intimidating witnesses and said she will be watching his statements and "scrutinizing them very carefully".

The government will still be allowed to petition the court for certain pieces of evidence to be covered by the order, and Chutkan also on Friday agreed with prosecutors and rejected an argument by Trump's lawyers that the hundreds of transcripts of witness interviews, recordings and related exhibits are sensitive and cannot be publicly shared.

“He is a criminal defendant. He is going to have restrictions like every single other defendant. This case is proceeding in the normal order,” Chutkan said.

“The fact the defendant is engaged in a political campaign is not going to allow him any greater or lesser latitude than any defendant in a criminal case."

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“The existence of a political campaign is not going to have any bearing on my decision,” Chutkan said on Friday.