Judge Chutkan placed a limited gag order on defendant Donald Trump to stop him from launching a “pretrial smear campaign” while respecting his rights to pursue his presidential campaign. Since the defendant appealed the order, she put it on hold to allow the defense to appeal her ruling.

I do not believe it was Judge Chutkan’s intent to give Donald Trump time to conduct his smear campaign, yet that was precisely the result.

It seems to me that Judge Chutkan should reverse her decision on the hold and reimpose the gag order before the defendant is allowed to do more damage.