Donald Trump fighting back against the special counsel Jack Smith's request for a gag order in his federal election probe. His lawyers say it would violate his right to free speech there, accusing prosecutors of trying to silence Trump as he is running for president. The special counsel requested a gag order to block Trump from threatening or intimidating witnesses on social media and to prevent him from tainting the jury pool. But Trump's legal team is urging the judge to reject that request an
d a court filing overnight. They claim it would strip Trump of his First Amendment freedoms during the most important months of his campaign against President Biden. Let's bring in CNN senior crime and justice reporter Caitlin Points. Caitlin, Trump's lawyer said this gag order would be unconstitutional. What happens next year? Well, the judge is going to have to determine what to do here because this is actually a pretty important debate to be had. It is one that Donald Trump's team is framing
is political censorship. They're saying he shouldn't be restricted. It's not fair. He's running for president. There was an indictment against him that allowed the special counsel to levy the charges. There's Joe Biden out there also campaigning for president. Not the same thing because Trump is a criminal defendant here. But that's the the the plane that they want to be talking about this on, whereas the Justice Department, they want to be making sure that the trial that Donald Trump is going t
o have in Washington, D.C., in federal court scheduled for March is fair so that witnesses aren't chilled in some way. And so the jurors come into that courtroom trusting the judge and having an open mind to the witnesses that are testifying. One of the things that Trump's team said in this filing overnight, the proposed gag order is nothing more than an obvious attempt by the Biden administration to unlawfully silence its most prominent political opponent. Now, it isn't as broad as saying Donal
d Trump can't speak at all about the case, at least what the judge department is asking for. We don't know what the judge is going to do here, but what the Justice Department wants is they want some limitations on what Donald Trump can say about the specific people in this case, witnesses, the judge, the prosecutors, things that he can say that could damage their credibility or possibly be inflammatory or harassment toward them. So that's the restriction that they want. But it is going to be in
the judge's court. And whenever this judge Tanya, can does something here to respond to the Justice Department's ask, there's going to be a question of what the consequence could be for Donald Trump. His lawyers say in the filing let's be clear, the prosecution hopes to create a contempt trap for President Trump and his attorneys. So at the end of the day, there's going to be a question that if there is something like this put over Donald Trump, a limited gag order does. Is that legal, first of
all? And second of all, is it something that could chill his his right and could be something that could cause him or the judge to want to put him in jail or restrict him even further if he doesn't follow it? Yeah, huge questions. No precedent. Uncharted territory for sure. Points. Keep us posted. Thank you. The Republican National Committee announcing the lineup for the debate tomorrow night in California. Seven candidates qualified, one fewer than last time. On the stage, you will see Chris Ch
ristie, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Governor Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Tim Scott and Governor Doug Burgum. Asa Hutchinson appeared in the first debate, did not meet all of the apprentice criteria this time. Former President Trump won't be there. He will instead travel to Detroit to deliver a speech and talk to union workers. CNN national politics reporter Evan McCann following all of it. He will be all across the country except on that debate stage in California. Yeah. Good morning to
you, Poppy. And Phil, it's because he's already positioning himself as a general election candidate by skipping California, going to Detroit. He's essentially telling voters his only focus is President Biden, but there's still a recognition he has to compete in the early states. He is far out ahead in every poll, but his margin not as wide in state level polls. The electorates are small in these states like New Hampshire and Iowa. We know that those voters appreciate an aggressive ground game an
d hearing from these candidates over and over again that they really want the job. So after that Detroit speech Wednesday, he'll be in Iowa over the weekend and he made a stop in South Carolina just yesterday If I do have a question, you know, the former president was in South Carolina. He made a stop at a gun store yesterday. His spokesman tweeted out that he purchased a gun, which would be problematic given he's been indicted for multiple in the form of 90 plus felony charges. What actually ha
ppened here? Yes. So this was a bit of a mess. Fill and got a lot of attention, as many suspected would. The spokesperson tweeted out this video showing Trump at a gun shop I think we can see the video here in South Carolina declaring he bought a Glock pistol. It turns out he actually did not. He's, as you mentioned, under indictment, facing criminal charges. The spokesperson deleted that post, clarified he did not purchase or take possession of the firearm He only indicated he wanted one. Feder
al law, of course, prohibits the sale of guns to people under felony indictment. So Trump did not walk away from the gun store with a gun, after all, fell for clearing that up. Got a lot of attention for sure yesterday. Thanks Now it's worth noting Trump, while preparing for his remarks tomorrow in Michigan, has also squeezed in plenty of time this week to lash out against Democrats, the media and some of his own political appointees. In a series of posts. These are only some of them. I want to
make that very clear. Trump cried treason, called for a government shutdown, and even suggested his former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair should be executed. His attack on outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley comes days after a new report of Miller's distrust of Trump's leadership. He said Miller's dealings with China at the end of Trump's presidency, which were allowed by his administration, should be, quote, punishable by death. He also suggested NBC's parent company, Comcast, should
be investigated for treason for their political coverage. He called on Republicans to push back on Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's automatic voter registration policy. And in the same post, referred to his former U.N. ambassador and current campaign rival, Nikki Haley as Birdbrain. He called on Republicans to shut down the government if they don't get everything they want in these negotiations. And he went after President Biden ahead of his trip to Michigan, accusing him of kill
ing the UAW and calling on the union to endorse him. So he did a lot with us to discuss. Jessica, Washington, senior reporter at The Root, Michele Pryce, Associated Press, national political reporter. John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst and the anchor running everyone. Don, I'm delighted you just did that run through of Donald Trump, because there's a tendency right now to ignore to the extent of normalizing his most outrageous claims, particularly calling for the execution of his former Jo
int Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. That's something that is so across anything resembling a moral line in politics. And the fact that it was initially greeted with silence indicates the degree to which we're getting numb to his outbursts and his grievances. And the real test for me in the coming debate is whether any Republican has the stones to call that out, in particular, other than Chris Christie, other than Chris Christie. Right. Who absolutely will. Because, look, if that's not unac
ceptable, what is? If you're a Republican, you allegedly stand for law and order and strong national security. The former president, the front runner, is calling for the execution of a former general. Can't call that out. You're not qualified, by the way, in the same week that millions. 40 plus years of service to this country You know, I think the question. I have one. All right. Maybe your excuses. You don't you're not on troop social. Not a lot of people are. So maybe you missed all of them.
That would be fair. I don't have an account yet. John helps me out on that. But but I think to John's point, it's the calibration in terms of response, not just for Republican candidates, but writ large as you go into an election where the frontrunner in the Republican Party literally tried to overturn the election in 2020. And people seem to be able to brush by that. And most Republican primary candidates and challengers are not challenging him on that. And you run through that list of things t
hat are just positively bonkers and everybody just kind of wanders by Why? I mean, that has been the question since Donald Trump came down the escalator and bonkers. I mean, among the other things, he claimed he could design a better fighter jet than the military you know, that that list ranged from violent to just bizarre. But, you know, we are right. We are not seeing anybody in that field besides Chris Christie challenged him on these things. And that that seems to be the question. They're al
l trying to posit themselves as a viable alternative. Are they actually running against him or are they just running in the background? Tomorrow? Go ahead. No, I was gonna say, I do think I mean, they don't want to alienate this base. They're terrified of that. I think we in the media also have a complicated push and pull because I think there was a lot of fear that we gave Trump too much airtime, that we spent too much time talking about him. And so I think there's also that fear in the media.
And then also the candidates might have some of those same concerns. And so now we're saying, okay, we have to address these awful, terrible things that he said. But also how do we not then just constantly get his message in front of people who maybe aren't on true social. And so I think that can feel complicated, even though I think we do have to be calling these things out directly.
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