Pumpkin Gag

Donald Trump was slapped with a SECOND gag order yesterday. This one was issued by federal Judge Tanya Chutkan who is presiding over the trial for Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election and insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021.

Judge Chutak issued the order after Trump made repeated attacks against the prosecution, potential witnesses, the court, and the judge. Targets of Trump’s tantrums have been targetted by Trump’s white nationalist terrorists. Many people who Trump has screamed about have received death threats. There’s a general who needs personal security after Trump’s tirades against him. Even an FBI field office was shot at after Trump’s screams of a weaponized FBI.

Republicans love to claim that Democrats want to defund law enforcement. Trump doesn’t want law enforcement defunded….he wants them killed.

Judge Chutkan said, “This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice.” She also said, “His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their jobs.” Keep in mind that the investigations into Trump’s grifts and criminality started before he declared his candidacy.

These investigations, charges, and trials don’t exist to prevent Trump from becoming president again (sic). In case you have a very short memory, criminal charges against Trump weren’t necessary to defeat him in 2020. Trump lost fair and square to President Joe Biden. In 2024, he’ll lose fair and square again.

Trump is now barred from commenting about the Special Counsel’s team, potential witnesses, and the court. Judge Chutkan explained saying, “One could come away from these arguments with a mistaken understanding that the First Amendment is an absolute right. That is false. The First Amendment yields to the administration of justice.”

Judge Chutkan was especially troubled by comments she believes present “a real possibility of violence” against Special Counsel Jack Smith, his team, and witnesses. Judge Chutkan noted several of Trump’s recent comments during the hearing, including referring to Smith as a “thug” and saying Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a potential witness in the case, committed a “treasonous act” during his tenure that was “so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”

Judge Chutkan asked Trump’s legal team, “In what kind of case do you think it would be appropriate for a criminal defendant to call the prosecutor a thug and stay on the streets?” She said, “‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest,’ comes to mind.”

It’s a line that Henry II, the king of England, has been quoted historically as uttering in 1170 during a feud with Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket. The next month, four of the king’s knights murdered Becket. It should be noted that Becket was eventually made a Saint.

The order is limited and doesn’t curtail Trump’s freedom of speech. Trump can still claim President Biden is crooked and a cokehead (yes, he’s done that). He can scream lies that he won the 2020 election. He can call Ron DeSantis “DeSanctimonious.” He can return to attacking the girl from Twilight saying she’s a skank (which he tweeted about 11 times). He can even claim he’s unfairly targeted by the Justice Department. But what he can’t do is make comments that send his goons to attack people, like they did with Paul Pelosi, which Trump has recently made jokes about.

This is the second gag order Trump has received over the past few weeks. The first is from his civil trial in New York when he attacked a female assistant to the Judge and spread lies about her. Trump really hates women. I expect another gag to be issued from the Atlanta case eventually. But so far, the gag orders aren’t working.

Just today, in the hallway outside the New York City courtroom where he’s being tried for fraud, he ranted and raved that New York Attorney General Letitia James was “ranting and raving like a lunatic.” There’s some deep irony for you.

Neither of these two judges has laid out exactly what punishment Trump would receive for violating his gag orders, but I say it’s a good time to find out.

It’s time to shut the Great Pumpkin up.

Creative note: Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday to make themes of for my cartoons. I like black and orange much more than I like the green and red from Christmas. I’m not going to apologize or make excuses for the number of Halloween cartoons I squeeze out before October 31. I believe this is number three for this year. How many more can I draw before the trick-or-treaters come out?

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Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

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