‘Wasting No Time!’ CNN Correspondent Says Judge Went Right After Trump At Hearing Over Speaking About Case

CNN correspondent Katelyn Polantz reported that Federal District Judge Tanya Chutkan wasted no time in addressing ex-President Donald Trump’s speech about the case during a hearing Friday.

Judge Chutkan is presiding over Trump’s  trial on his indictment by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury for his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election before and on January 6, 2021.  Trump faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

On Friday’s edition of CNN News Central, anchor John Berman tossed to Polantz for the first of likely many up-to-the-minute updates on a contentious hearing over the protective order that Smith’s team is seeking, and Polantz reported the judge cut right to the chase about Trump’s “free speech”:

JOHN BERMAN: The hearing began really just a few minutes ago, about ten, 15 minutes ago. Already we are getting very interesting tidbits from inside the courtroom about how Judge Chutkan will handle this case going forward and some real signs of where things are headed. So let’s get right to Katelyn Polantz here for these tidbits. The judge wasting really no time here, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ: No time at all. 20 minutes into this hearing and it already is about Donald Trump’s speech outside of the courtroom. And I want to read a quote that the judge just spoke from the bench in considering whether she can put some sort of overlay an order that essentially tells him he can’t disclose evidence he’s learning in the course of this pretrial preparation as his team is preparing.

She says “Mr. Trump, like every American, has a First Amendment right to free speech, but that right is not absolute. In a criminal defendant’s case such as this one, the defendant’s free speech is subject to the rules.”

And Judge Chutkan is already indicating that she is ready to make rulings, making decisions today in court about how this case is going to go forward. And at one point too, a Justice Department attorney said to her that he, they believe that Trump wants to try this case in the media before trial. And she did indicate that she does want to address that today during this hearing. Some of the other things she’s saying is that she does want to make sure that her rulings are taking into consideration the safety of witnesses.

So some perhaps some limitations on what Trump can say about the evidence he’s learning from what witness may witnesses may have said against him or about him in grand jury proceedings, other evidence he would learn about what witness testimony has been to this point. She also has indicated that she does believe there needs to be an order like this, because this is a judicial context, this is not a political context, and that you have to protect the jury pool. That jury pool should not be tainted because Donald Trump as a criminal defendant here deserves a fair trial, John.

Watch the clip above CNN News Central.