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Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Lawyers for former President Donald Trump filed an appeal against a partial gag order placed on him by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in his election interference case. Trump attorney John Lauro filed the notice of appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday as the legal team claimed the gag order would harm the former president in his 2024 presidential run.
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On Monday, Chutkan instituted the limited gag order that prevents Trump from issuing statements that target special counsel Jack Smith and his team, as well as staff working with Chutkan and other personnel in the D.C. district court.
Trump and his attorneys, however, have said some of the people he would be blocked from criticizing are involved in the political campaign against him.
"I'll be the only politician in our history where I won't be allowed to criticize people," Trump said at a campaign speech in Iowa on Monday. "They put a gag order on me, and I'm not supposed to be talking about things that bad people do."
But Chutkan in her ruling said Trump's past comments on those involved in the case had the potential of prejudicing the case.
"This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses," Chutkan said on Monday in issuing the gag order. "This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice."
Trump, though, said such gag orders are part of a larger scheme to hurt him politically and prevent his return to the presidency.
"We're being railroaded. And I have other trials where we're being railroaded," Trump said to reporters before attending a separate civil fraud trial in New York on Tuesday. "You saw yesterday where they took away my right to speak. I won't be able to speak like I'm speaking to you."
New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the multibillion-dollar business fraud trial in New York City, also placed Trump under a gag order in that case earlier this month.
