Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Comes now special counsel Jack Smith … asking judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a ‘gag order’ under which [Donald] Trump would be forbidden to publicly make ‘certain prejudicial extrajudicial statements.’ I tend toward a dim view of ‘gag orders’ in general, but this proposal is particularly silly and counter-productive. It embodies the same level of evil as any other demand that someone’s public speech be curtailed, but it’s also likely to be ineffectual, or even actually damage Smith’s efforts to convict Trump. To steal a quote incorrectly attributed to French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord concerning an 1804 trial and execution, ‘it’s worse than a crime, it’s a blunder.'” (09/17/23)