adminFormer President Donald Trump continued his attacks on special counsel Jack Smith on Saturday, including a reference to Smith’s family, at a rally in Claremont, New Hampshire.
The former president repeated his accusations that Smith is “deranged” and a “Trump-hating prosecutor,” continuing, “his wife and family despise me much more than he does.”
Smith is overseeing two federal cases against Trump, related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
Referring to the alleged ill -will Smith and his family have for Trump, the former president said Smith is “about at 10” and his family is “about a 15 on a scale of 10.”
Some of Trump’s attacks against Smith stem from the activities of his wife, filmmaker Katy Chevigny. Chevigny donated $2,000 to the Biden campaign in 2020 and was a producer for a Netflix documentary about former first lady Michelle Obama.
Smith himself is a registered independent and hasn’t donated to Democratic campaigns.
“There’s always intimidation of everybody at the highest level. But I really don’t care. I don’t care. I just want to do what’s right for the country,” Trump told the crowd.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s federal election subversion case in Washington, DC, issued a gag order against Trump last month after prosecutors raised concerns that the former president could intimidate witnesses or encourage harm against prosecutors through his public comments. Trump quickly appealed and sought to have the gag order paused while the appeal unfolded.
A federal appeals court later temporarily froze the limited gag order, allowing him to again speak freely with criticism of possible witnesses in the case.
In a brief order, a three-judge panel at the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals said it was pausing the gag order issued by Chutkan to give the judges more time to consider Trump’s request to pause the order while his appeal of it plays out before the court.
CNN’s Devan Cole, Katelyn Polantz, Marshall Cohen and Daniel Dale contributed to this report.
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