what was your impression of judge chutkan s first hearing in this case? i think that theme was no nonsense and no politics, and the judge made that very clear throughout the course of the hearing. the one thing she kept returning to was, you know, trump is now a criminal defendant. just because he is choosing to run a campaign does not mean that supersedes his requirement that he abide by a protective order or abide by his release conditions so that he won t be engaging my chill will rise to the level of witness intimidation. you saw this reflected in the order she handed down. she did grant and the trump lawyers request to have sensitive material kind of support in a kind of bucket as opposed to non sensitive material, which he can t disclose. he could disclosed to such an extent that it s difficult to really see it as a win for
announcement and did not comment. david weiss, a trump appointee, has been investigating hunter biden since 2018. today, prosecutors said in a court filing that plea negotiations with hunter biden s team on tax charges brought by weiss s office had fallen apart. the case is now expected to go to trial. leading off our discussion tonight, hugo lowell, who covers donald trump and the justice department for the guardian. he was at the courthouse here in d. c. for today s hearing. hugo, great to see you. what was your impression of judge chutkan s first hearing in this case? i think that theme was no nonsense and no politics, and the judge made that very clear throughout the course of the hearing. the one thing she kept returning to was, you know, trump is now a criminal defendant. just because he is choosing to run a campaign does not mean that supersedes his requirement that he abide by a protective order or abide by his release conditions so that he won t be engaging my chill will
defendant, first and foremost. that s what matters most because of the way the united states is set up as a government, as a democracy. one of the quotes, this is the judge speaking, he s going t have constraints the same aany defendant. this case will proceed in a normal order. another thing the judge said today, whatever donald trump says out on the campaign trail, it can be limited. you can limit the first amendment, especially when you have somebody in court like this. he is not going to be able to disclose some of the very sensitive information he learns from the justice department, including things he learns from witnesses, people who testified to build this case. he also has to abide by his release conditions. he s not allowed to talk to other witnesses about the facts of this case and not able to
will set up quite a train wreck just over that issue. i mean, in the normal case, he could be held in contempt for that. his release conditions could be revoked and of course that will immediately tee up the first amendment arguments. american voters have a lot to say about the legal troubles. a poll before the arraignment asked republicans if they would still vote for trump if he were convicted of a felony by a juror. 35% said yes. 45% said no. here is some reaction. i think that justice would be in a fair verdict and i think that requires jail time. we all saw what went down january 6. completely unnecessary obstruction of justice and it shouldn t stand. i think that he should be held accountable. there is plenty on this day. i m hoping that they get him and we don t ever have to see his face in this town again. i think true justice would be restoring him back into the
accusing them of luring people to invest in sham business opportunities. in march, new york s criminal case against trump forfalsifying business records as a part of hush money payments to stormy daniels will begin. and finally, two months later, trump s federal classified documents trial is set to start, less than 200 days before the election. in the court room earlier, former president trump was told not to communicate about the facts of the case by thejudge. she warned him that failure to comply could result in an arrest warrant, revoked release conditions and contempt of court charges. earlier my colleague sumi somaskanda spoke to democratic congressmanjamie raskin about the pending trial. your thoughts on what you witnessed. it isa it is a tremendous vindication of the rule of law in american