Jack Smith Requests Jury Protections After Trump’s Social Media Attacks on Law Clerk: ‘There Is Cause For Concern’
Jamie FreveleOct 10th, 2023
Former President Donald Trump is facing another attempt by lawyers to restrict what he says in public after repeatedly posting personal attacks on social media.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith filed a request on Tuesday to provide protections for jurors and prospective jurors in the federal election fraud case. He cited Trump’s Truth Social posts that baselessly targeted Allison Greenfield, the principal law clerk of Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over Trump’s civil business fraud trial in New York City and ultimately issued a partial gag order against Trump. Smith said in the filing that there was a concern with “the defendant’s continued use of social media as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings.” He added:
In addition to the record before the Court from the Government’s previous filings, see ECF Nos. 57 & 64, just last week the defendant escalated his conduct and publicly attacked the trial judge’s law clerk in his pending civil fraud trial in New York State Supreme Court. The defendant did so by reposting on his Truth Social account — which has 6.4 million followers — a photograph of the law clerk and a United States Senator with the baseless caption, “[Senator’s] girlfriend, [Clerk], is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!” As a result, the judge in that case was forced to issue an oral order that no party speak publicly about members of the court staff. Given that the defendant — after apparently reviewing opposition research on court staff — chose to use social media to publicly attack a court staffer, there is cause for concern about what he may do with social media research on potential jurors in this case.
Smith also proposed that potential jurors be subject to a written questionnaire in addition to an oral interview during the jury selection process and that the personal information contained in those documents be kept safe and “no party will improperly use their names or other identifying information.”
Previously, Smith requested a limited gag order against Trump that is set to be reviewed by Judge Tanya Chutkan on October 16; Chutkan is presiding over the federal election case in Washington, DC.
Jack Smith Requests Jury Protections After Trump Attacks (mediaite.com) |
