After federal prosecutors demanded the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s 2020 election case order him to keep from publicly airing government evidence, the former president’s lawyers shot back on Monday that such a limitation would infringe on his freedom of speech. “In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights,” two of Trump’s attorneys argued in a 13-page motion. “Worse, it does so against its administration’s primary political opponent, during an election season in which the administration, prominent party members, and media allies have campaigned on the indictment and proliferated its false allegations.” They asked that any protective order imposed “shield only genuinely sensitive materials.” Prosecutors quickly fired back a response that accused Trump of trying “to use the discovery material to litigate this case in the media” rather than the courtroom. Finally, in a filing on Monday night, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan interceded between the two warring sides, ordering them to meet on Tuesday to agree on possible dates for a hearing on the matter—set to be held no later than Friday, she ruled.
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