Trump’s win-win situation?
CNN headlines: https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/
Trump’s gag order appeal previews America’s grave election year stress test
CNN’s Stephen Collinson writes:
“Donald Trump may have found his ‘heads-I-win, tails-you-lose’ legal challenge.
However the ex-president’s appeal ends against a limited gag order imposed in his federal election subversion case, he can expect a benefit. If Trump prevails – or the three judges who heard the case Monday narrow the terms of the restriction – he may gain new leeway to attack special counsel Jack Smith’s case against him. If Trump loses, as seems likely given the tone of the hearing, he will have a new talking point for his narrative that he’s being persecuted to destroy his 2024 campaign.
A judgment in Trump’s favor on the gag order – which has been temporarily frozen while the appeal is heard – would pale against his four criminal trials and his current civil fraud trial in New York.
But the issue, and Monday’s hearing, provided a preview of the extreme institutional stress, political tensions and grave constitutional questions ahead next year when the most recent president and possible GOP nominee fights for his liberty in multiple courtrooms while battling to win back the White House.
It’s hard to see how the legal system escapes the fate of other institutions of accountability whose images have been tarnished after seeking to contain or expose the ex-president’s unique brand of rule breaking.
The gag order appeal is entwined with complex arguments on the breadth of the First Amendment and the extent to which courts have the right to regulate its scope in order to protect their officers and proceedings and the administration of justice.”
Stay tuned.
