Civil rights attorney Harmeet Dhillon warned the Manhattan District Attorney’s office may try to slap a gag order on former President Donald Trump to prevent him from campaigning for 2024.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked Dhillon on his show Friday if Trump could lose his free speech rights during a presidential race if he’s arrested.
“You have seen cases, politicized cases, as with Roger Stone, in which the person charged is gagged by the judge and not allowed to speak about the charges. This is increasingly common, in violation of the First Amendment, obviously. But it happens,” Carlson said. “If this happens to Donald Trump, he will lose his free speech rights as a candidate in a presidential race. And I’m just wondering if you think that could potentially happen.”
Harmeet replied that “it very much could happen.”
“In fact, we’ve seen it talked about on television already, and in fact, the President has been subject to similar allegations in other litigation that he’s involved in and also way beyond the statute of limitations,” Dhillon said.
“The story is that because he says mean things about people sometimes on his free speech platforms, that he should not be allowed to speak about a fundamental issue of due process that governs the future of our country and how we look at justice and how we look at the politicization of this political process. So that would be a gross miscarriage of justice if it occurs. And I would not be surprised to see this politicized prosecutor make that request of this judge.”
Carlson noted that such a move would constitute grave election interference.
“I honestly think it’s impossible to imagine greater election interference, a greater or more aggressive attack on our democracy, than gagging a presidential candidate in a presidential year,” Carlson observed.
“I mean, Vladimir Putin has never dreamed of any attack on the United States more damaging than that. Would anyone be able to stop it?”
Dhillon replied that if a court approves of a gag order for Trump then there is very little that can be done to lift it.
“Well, certainly the lawyers in this case will argue against that…But at the end of the day if a court sets those rules, then the litigant has to abide by them or be in contempt of court. And that itself would be a very dangerous course to pursue,” she said.
“This is not the way justice is meant to go in the United States. What I’m afraid of is that this isn’t just going to be about Donald Trump. It’s going to undermine all citizens’ confidence in the rule of law in this country. And that’s really tragic,” she added.
Stone, who was also issued a gag order during the Russia collusion witch hunt case against him in 2019, said he fears the same will be imposed on Trump and his family in a pivotal election cycle.
“When I was targeted in the Mueller WitchHunt I was gagged by the Judge from defending myself in any public [sic] forum,” Stone tweeted. “My wife and adult children were also unconstitutionally gagged. Now I fear an NY Judge will gag @realDonaldTrump as well as @DonaldJTrumpJr and @EricTrump.”
When I was targeted in the Mueller WitchHunt I was gagged by the Judge from defending myself in any publlic forum. My wife and adult children were also unconstitutionally gagged. Now I fear an NY Judge will gag @realDonaldTrump as well as @DonaldJTrumpJr and @EricTrump
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) April 1, 2023
While New York Democrats commit blatant textbook election interference, the Justice Department just convicted a content creator of election interference for making memes critical of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
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