(GoRealNewsNow.com) – According to a new court filing, a federal judge has issued a gag order banning former President Donald Trump and his lawyers from making public certain evidence from his classified documents indictment.
Earlier this month, a Florida grand jury indicted Trump on 37 charges over his alleged mishandling of classified government records, most claiming violations of the 1917 Espionage Act.
Besides the gag order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart of the Southern District of Florida also imposed strict limitations on Trump’s access to the case materials, Reuters reports, as cited by Newsmax.
“The Discovery materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court,” reads the court document.
Reinhart’s order specified further that the 45th president of the United States “shall not retain copies” of any case materials, and that he would only be able to review those “under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff.”
The judge thus heeded a motion filed last week by US Justice Department prosecutors who had asked him to impose conditions on how Trump’s defense team could store and use the case materials.
Under the indictment, the former president, who remains the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, is accused of illegally keeping classified U.S. documents after his White House term ended in January 2017.
Trump also stands accused of conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation into the matter. During his arraignment last week, Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts.
Jack Smith, the Special Counsel of the US Justice Department overseeing the classified documents probe, has also been appointed by President Joe Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to investigate Trump’s alleged attempt to “overturn” the results from the 2020 election, including through the January 6, 2021 events at the U.S. Capitol.
The former president’s other legal hurdles include a financial crimes indictment by Manhattan’s Democrat DA Alvin Bragg over alleged hush-money payments to a porn actress and a second defamation lawsuit by 79-year-old feminist author E. Jean Carroll.
A U.S. judge in Florida on Monday ordered defense lawyers for former President Donald Trump not to release evidence in the classified documents case to the media or the public, according to a court filing. https://t.co/uvQB6Orr0l
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 19, 2023
