Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann highlighted a “chilling” aspect of Donald Trump’s attempted appeal of the gag order in his 2020 election interference case.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s order bans the former president from criticizing prosecutors, court staff and any potential witnesses in public. It was temporarily lifted Friday for Chutkan to assess an appeal but was reimposed late Sunday following more rhetoric from Trump.
Weissmann, talking to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Monday, said one part of the appeal brief from Trump’s legal team was cause for concern.
It basically said, Weissman explained: “If there is violence, that’s on the people who take up my words and commit the violence. It’s not on me, Donald Trump.”
Trump is essentially saying, “I can say whatever I want, and if people act on it, don’t look at me,” Weissmann continued.
“That I find the most chilling because any responsible person who is trying to avoid violence, who is trying to avoid the fear and intimidation … would be saying ‘I’m trying to do everything to not have that happen, to not be using my words in a way that they would be used for that,’” Weissmann said.
“Any normal person would be trying to make sure that they wouldn’t in any way be responsible for harming another person,” he added. “And this is quite the contrary where you have the government correctly saying, ‘These words he knows darn well are going to lead to these consequences.’”