West Virginia Attorney General Tells Newsmax: Trump Gag Order Is Unconstitutional

November 20, 2023 TruthUSA

A coalition of 18 state attorneys general last week filed an amicus brief opposing a federal court’s gag order on former President Donald Trump because free speech “is at the core of First Amendment protections and political speech is paramount,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey told Newsmax on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Oct. 29 reinstated a gag order prohibiting Trump from targeting the special counsel prosecuting his case or witnesses who might be called to testify about the then-president’s efforts to overturn his election loss.

Morrisey and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led the effort to file the brief to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“We thought that these gag orders generally have been very overbroad,” Morrisey said to “Wake Up America” host Rob Finnerty. “They’ve been unconstitutionally impermissible…”>

Morrisey was asked about the political angle with gag orders against Trump in the D.C. election case and in a New York civil fraud trial.

“I think if you look at all these cases and these indictments, it’s very clear to me that this has been a political witch hunt across the board, and I’ve been saying that for a long time and pushing back against the aggressively,” Morrisey said. “So, when you know that the core of the issues that they’re bringing forth are political, it makes what they’re doing here in terms of the gag order doubly problematic.”

Morrisey said he’s “deeply disturbed” by Democrats desire to have a potential verdict against Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, before next year’s election.

“I’ve always been deeply disturbed about actually having a trial in Washington D.C.,” Morrisey said. “In fact, I think earlier in the year we had talked about moving the venue out to West Virginia. I am very worried that the process has been driven to getting this done and actually trying to having a verdict very, very quickly in order to influence the elections.”

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