Donald Trump hosted his golf club in New Jersey on Friday while his Washington, DC attorneys sat in court for their first showdown with the judge overseeing his Jan. 6 case.
Trump was spotted driving a golf cart with his glamorous assistant Margo Martin and mingling with the crowd while the stars of LIV played golf at his Bedminster golf course.
The former president’s trusted valet, Walt Nauta, charged with secret documents in the Mar-a-Lago case, was at his boss’s side, carrying three iPhones as huge crowds followed them.
While Trump was in court with the likes of Phil Mickelson, his lawyers were fighting a court battle just over 200 miles away.
Judge Tanya Chutkan warned the former president’s lawyers that he faces a faster trial if he continues to make “seditious” statements.
In a stern message, she said she would not allow the trial to become a “carnival atmosphere of uncontrolled publicity and negotiation by the media” over allegations it undermined the 2020 election.
Trump was spotted driving a golf cart with his glamorous assistant Margo Martin and mingling with the crowd while the stars of LIV played golf at his Bedminster golf course
Trump acted as host at his golf club in New Jersey on Friday while his Washington, DC attorneys sat in court for their first showdown with the judge overseeing his Jan. 6 case
Her caution came at the end of a hearing in which she repeatedly pointed to the former president’s “release conditions” as a factor that could compel compliance with her order.
Trump’s attorney, John Lauro, spoke openly about Trump’s need to challenge “political opponent” Vice President Mike Pence.
As the federal judge prepared to issue a protective order against Trump to protect trial information and witnesses, Trump’s attorney John Lauro repeatedly invoked the presidential campaign.
She said she wanted to “ensure Mr. Trump is afforded all the rights that any citizen would have,” citing a Supreme Court case that warned of a “carnival atmosphere.”
When the judge warned of safeguards against “denigrating a witness,” Lauro replied, “Your Honor, you may be thinking of Mr. Pence,” after Trump raged online about Pence and the ongoing Jan. 6 dispute.
At his boss’s side was the former President’s trusted valet, Walt Nauta, who was indicted in the Mar-a-Lago secret documents case
Nauta was spotted carrying three iPhones while Trump’s attorneys faced the DC judge
While Trump was in court with the likes of Phil Mickelson, his lawyers were fighting a court battle just over 200 miles away
A little over 200 miles away in the country’s capital, Judge Tanya Chutkan warned the former president’s lawyers (pictured) that he could face a faster trial if he continues to make “seditious statements”.
“President Trump has the ability to respond fairly to political opponents,” Lauro said, noting the need to protect Trump’s First Amendment rights even as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination.
Judge Tanya Chutkan said at a hearing Friday she was preparing a protective order
But the judge brought up Trump’s “day job,” saying the defendant’s desire to respond to opponents “must give way.”
“This is a criminal case.” She referred to the “need for this criminal proceeding to proceed in the normal order” while protecting witnesses and the “integrity of the process.” This means that “there will be limits to the defendant’s speech”.
Lauro raised Pence again when he and the government were haggling over the terms of such an order, which would restrict how Trump reviews materials the government is required to turn over and what he can say about them.
Lauro brought up the campaign again, arguing that a decision “will give President Biden a tremendous advantage mid-campaign.”
Chutkan responded that such matters “cannot and will not be considered in my decision” and that she would ignore “the impact they will have on a political campaign for either side.”
“The fact that there is a political campaign will not affect my decision one way or the other,” she said.
Judge Chutkan said Trump retained a First Amendment right.
“But I can imagine that making public statements about potential witnesses in advance of the trial will in and of itself interfere with the proper administration of justice and, Mr. Lauro, could violate his terms of release,” she said.
Judge Chutkan warned against “denigrating a witness” and prompted Trump’s attorney, John Lauro, to question whether she was referring to Trump’s attacks on former Vice President Mike Pence
Trump’s lawyers advocated giving him the widest possible opportunity to review materials and speak publicly about what he knows. The judge warned against statements that “denigrate” a witness.
Noting that Pence “is now a political opponent on the campaign trail,” Lauro warned it would be unfair not to allow Trump to respond based on his own memories and materials from his tenure.
Trump said Jan. 6 that Pence lacked “courage” for failing to accept state-approved votes for Joe Biden. Pence recently accused Trump of listening to the “crazy” lawyers of the time.
Both sides spent more than an hour negotiating how Trump would be able to review material – which the administration announced was just the first “production” of evidence from a whopping 11:6 million documents would exist.
Judge Chutkan issued several “compromise” decisions on the technicalities of the order – but also made it clear that she is keen to keep the pace of the process going.
She promised: “I will take all necessary measures to ensure the integrity of this proceeding.”
And she had a warning apparently aimed at Trump’s team as the government invokes the Speedy Trial Act and Trump’s lawyers emphasize the amount of material they have to review, which could be a waste of time.
She said even ambiguous public statements could reasonably be interpreted as “intimidating” or “biasing” the jury.
Should that prove a danger to the process, “it becomes all the more imperative that we proceed with the process quickly,” she said – essentially warning that she could speed the process up even further.
Although the judge repeatedly warned against intimidating witnesses, he acceded to some of Lauro’s requests. As to whether the order applied to both sensitive and non-sensitive information, she agreed with the defense’s narrower proposal.
It also allowed Trump to review trial footage provided by prosecutors without any of his attorneys being present. But she has taken measures that would deter him from copying or leaking it: he is not allowed to have a phone or copier on him, and he is not allowed to take it with him when leaving the room where he is checking it .
While fighting over the terms of the order, Lauro described himself as massively outnumbered.
“As far as I know, the special counsel has over 60 lawyers and investigators working on it,” he said in court. He advocated trying to allow volunteer lawyers and “counselors” to review the evidence. The judge expressed concern that the wording proposed by the defense was too broad.