Donald Trump's 'Unusual' Gag Order Won't Block MAGA Violence: Ex Prosecutor

Donald Trump's current gag orders do not go far enough to prevent "long-range incitement to violence" of his loyal MAGA supporters, a former prosecutor argues.

Mary McCord, a former acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said existing protective orders—gag orders—in Trump's legal cases are "unusual" in not warning the former president he faces pretrial detainment if he breaks them.

"I think what we are on right now is a slow or not-so-slow development of a long range of incitement to violence," she added, pointing to Trump's social media posts against prosecutors, judges and his political rival President Joe Biden."

Gag orders have been imposed in three Trump cases: one in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial in New York was expanded Monday to block Trump from assailing families of the judge and district attorney; in another criminal trial in which he is accused of plotting to overturn the 2020 election; and Trump has been fined $15,000 for violations of another in his civil fraud case, a case Trump is appealing. Trump denies any wrongdoing and claims he is the victim of a political witch hunt.

"In the two criminal cases they did not actually make [gag orders] part of the conditions of release and require Mr. Trump to sign that he understands his conditions have now been expanded and if he violates them his release can be revoked," McCord told MSNBC host Michael Steele on Monday Inside With Jen Psaki.

"Instead, the remedies here are things like contempt of court for violating court order. Now that can result in time in jail, so it's not toothless, but I think for us former prosecutors it's unusual that these restrictions on speech were not just incorporated into the conditions of release."

Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, has been outspoken on social media about those involved in his trials, including criticism of the judge's daughter in his New York criminal case. Trump and his lawyers argue his comments are protected under the First Amendment, which protects free speech.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung denounced on Monday the expansion of the New York gag order, calling it "unconstitutional" and aimed at preventing Trump "from engaging in core political speech."

McCord said the expanded gag order in that case was instead designed to reassure jurors and witnesses, but warned: "I don't know if that's good enough."

"This is all about getting his base ready to take action and unfortunately our law doesn't protect against incitement to imminent violence but that violence, he wants it to come—that's why he's doing it—and I think there's a high likelihood it will come, and imminence is really hard to judge with a man like Donald Trump," she added.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, appearing on the same show, said the justice system was "failing" against Trump and that stronger orders are needed.

Kirschner, a prominent Trump critic, read court papers in which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office sought the gag order in Trump's New York criminal trial be expanded, saying: "Defendant's dangerous, violent, and reprehensible rhetoric fundamentally threatens the integrity of these proceedings and is intended to intimidate witnesses and trial participants alike—including this Court."

Kirschner commented: "To this old prosecutor the only sentence that makes sense coming after that assertion is, 'therefore the People are moving for pretrial detention.'

"The fact that no judge and no prosecutor has actually stepped-up to put a stop to Trump's dangerous rhetoric is a real problem."

Newsweek has contacted Cheung via email Tuesday morning for comment on McCord and Kirschner's remarks about Trump.