So, Trump gets slapped with a gag order, and immediately holds a press conference blithering about how corrupt New York Attorney General Leticia James is.
Why isn’t Trump behind bars for contempt of court?
No really, why? Why even bother with gag orders if we don’t enforce them?
Or am I looking at this wrong?
There are a variety of reasons why Trump may be given a much longer rope on such things than your average defendant. The question is whether there is a point at which the rope will turn into a noose.
And the answer is: I don’t know. I hope so; otherwise you’re right and this is a pointless exercise. But the judges and prosecutors don’t seem the types to engage in pointless exercises, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Gag orders issued in one venue (DC Federal Court) are not binding on other venues (New York State (Supreme?) Court). DC Circuit Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan issued the gag order pertaining to her case alone. The civil court in New York handling AG Letitia James’s case has not issued one except as it pertains to the judge’s staff.
Hopefully this clears up some of your confusion.
A lot of us are frustrated that things aren’t moving as quickly as we’d like. But I trust the legal system to work the way its supposed to work. The judge isn’t going to throw Trump in jail the first time he breaks a gag order, they’re going to start with a lower form of punishment, maybe even just an admonishment, and work their way up. Maybe he will end up in jail. Maybe he’ll find himself going to trial sooner than expected.
Interesting opinion on this matter, on CNN this morning:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/17/opinions/trump-gag-order-chutkan-filipovic/index.html
From the item:
It seems Trump is testing that one too:
No, he isn’t. AG Letitia James is not a member of the judge’s staff. She is not covered by his gag order. In fact, she has made clear that she expects Trump will continue to attack her, and that she will not be bullied or deterred from her task.
Low class? Dangerous? Piece-of-shit behavior? Sure. But we would expect nothing less from Trump. And not in violation of Judge Engoron’s narrow gag order.
This will become the basis of an extended gag order.
The judge is quite aware that our democracy is at risk and that how Trump is handeled has to be extermly fair or risk some sort of knee jerk response from his supporters. The pill that they must swallow needs to be taken slowly and the response when sanctions are taken need to be explainable to a 5th grader.
Very basic question here: was it the judge’s staff, or the court staff? Is there a difference? Is the District Attorney part of the court staff?
A minute of Googling isn’t finding the text of the order.
Well, in California (and I think most of the rest of the country), the terms “judge’s staff” and “court staff” can be used interchangeably. There are differences, but both are employed in service and support of the entire bench of a particular venue.
Within a court organization, “judge’s staff” is distinguished as being the staff that actually works with the judge in the courtroom, meaning bailiffs, official court reporters (stenographers) and clerks (judge’s assistants). “Court staff” refers more generally to all employees who work for the court. These can include the clerks who work the front desk receiving pleadings, keeping track of files and setting up calendars, as well as court attorneys, court secretaries and the like. They don’t work in the courtroom, but without them, the business of the courts would come to a grinding halt.
The District Attorney’s Office functions as an entirely separate – and partisan – office. They are prosecutors and they represent city, county and/or state venues on behalf of the People. Their budgets are separate and they answer to no judge.
On the other side is the Public Defender’s Office, who are assigned to represent defendants who need assistance but can’t afford private counsel. They do not work for the courts, either.
Hope this clarifies.
Definitely, and thank you! I thought I was finding references to the defenders being court staff (which I must have misunderstood), and was wondering whether the prosecutors also were. Your explanation for why they’re not is super helpful.
Because we liberals are, for the most part, gutless bitches. When the thug steals our lunch money, we tend to respond with bullshit things like, “let’s take the high road” or, “God knows what he has gone through growing up” instead of dealing with the situation.
I agree. A law/ruling/mandate that is violated with impunity is far worse than no law/ruling/mandate at all. It makes a joke out of the process and the originator of said law/ruling/mandate.
I am not a bitch!
I said, “for the most part”. You are part of the other part. 
Trump has been given so much rope he could run a chain of rope stores.
I forget who I heard say it, but some legal analyst on TV said something like, “The concept of gag orders and threats of contempt of court rely on the unspoken assumption that people with business before the court would like to avoid pissing off the judge. I’m not sure that holds here.”
See, this is what I don’t understand. Why are we so terrified of the MAGA crowd? Sure, there’s a chance that a couple of ignorant redneck types will climb a tower with a rifle or shoot up a mall someplace if Trump gets jail time. There may even be a couple of riots in some red colored wasteland. But goddamn it, we could handle that. We get mass shootings all the time for lesser stuff. Why all this hemming and hawing about putting Trump away because someone might have a “kneejerk response”? Why the kid gloves?
Trump has flipped the script on judges. They are scared of him when it should be the other way around.
Do you realize how close we came to an coup in this country? While it may not have been a founding father type takeover we would now be living in a fascist state had they succeeded. Dont underestimate his followers. We need to take him down by the book, one step at a time to show that true democracy still rules here, to show it to the world how the rule of law works.
Just locking him up right away for the slightest infraction is what dictatorships do. Let him hang himself, it will happen.
I went to some trouble to explain why the judges who have imposed gag orders are proceeding with care:
It’s not MAGA they’re worried about. It’s a fear of setting irreversible legal precedent by a Supreme Court that might push the boundaries for Trump – and hence, any future presidential candidate who might choose to employ the dangerous language Trump uses in their campaigns.