Judge schedules Friday hearing for Trump election case

WASHINGTON

The judge presiding over the case against former US President Donald Trump on allegations of attempting to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election set a Friday hearing for the defense and prosecutors to discuss a proposed protective order.

Lawyers representing Trump and Justice Department prosecutors are now slated to meet at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. Friday morning. They earlier proposed conflicting dates for the hearing after US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan asked for their availability on or before Friday.

Trump's attorneys instead proposed Monday or Tuesday after prosecutors said they would be available any day between Wednesday and Friday.

Last Friday, prosecutors asked Chutkan to issue a protective order to limit what Trump and his legal team can share with the public after receiving evidence ahead of trial.

Covered documents include grand jury testimony, witness information, and other evidence that will be shared as part of what is known as discovery, or the pre-trial phase in which the defense is granted access to evidence against their client.

Prosecutors sought the order after Trump posted an apparently menacing message on Truth Social on Friday, saying "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!"

Trump's lawyers said Monday that the judge should narrow any such order to only cover "restrictions on sensitive materials," saying the order as requested is overly broad and a violation of free speech.

"The Court can, and should, limit its protective order to genuinely sensitive materials—a less restrictive alternative that would satisfy any government interest in confidentiality while preserving the First Amendment rights of President Trump and the public," the defense team wrote.

"In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights," they added.