Experts: Trump already "in violation" of D.C. gag order — and may “spend a night or weekend in jail"

Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb predicted on Monday that the former president could be jailed for violating the gag order in his D.C. election interference case.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Sunday reinstated a partial gag order barring Trump from targeting court staff, the special counsel’s team and potential witnesses after prosecutors complained that Trump used a pause in the order to target witnesses like former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Trump’s post targeting Meadows, which Chutkan cited in her ruling as a likely violation of the order, remains up on his Truth Social feed and the former president attacked another potential witness — former Attorney General Bill Barr — on his social platform just an hour after the gag order was reimposed.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance told MSNBC on Monday that Trump is likely already in violation of the court order because he’s “back on Truth Social talking to Bill Barr in similar ways to the way he talked about Mark Meadows."

“I struggled because I don't want to call it a truth, but that's what they call it on Truth Social, so Trump has this 'truth' that he posts while the gag order is stayed," she continued. "He doesn't take it down when the gag order is reimposed, and technically, that means he's in violation of the gag order. It doesn't say, if you say it before the gag order and keep saying it, we'll give you grace. Here, Trump's failure to take it down is something, I think we'll see prosecutors bring to the court's attention pretty quickly."

Trump has already been fined twice for violating a gag order in his New York civil fraud trial after repeatedly targeting Judge Arthur Engoron’s clerk.

Cobb, who served on Trump’s White House legal team during the Mueller investigation, told CNN on Monday that the civil case in New York is “not as consequential as Judge Chutkan’s case.”

“I think she’ll come in with a much heavier penalty, and ultimately, I think he’ll spend a night or a weekend in jail,” he told host Erin Burnett.

“I think it’s gonna take that,” Cobb added after Burnett expressed surprise at his prediction. “I think it’ll take that to stop him.”

Trump’s attacks on court officials and prosecutors have caused growing concern after his supporters have targeted prosecutors and judges and their families with threats.

“I’m very protective of my staff, and I believe I should be; I don’t want anybody killed,” Engoron said last week.

Just on Monday, the Justice Department announced charges against an Alabama man who threatened violence against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat over their role in investigating Trump. The Trump supporter warned Willis “when you charge Trump on that fourth indictment, anytime you’re alone, be looking over your shoulder;” and “what you put out there, [expletive], comes back at you ten times harder, and don’t ever forget it,” according to prosecutors.

“Sending interstate threats to physically harm prosecutors and law enforcement officers is a vile act intended to interfere with the administration of justice and intimidate individuals who accept a solemn duty to protect and safeguard the rights of citizens,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement.  “When someone threatens to harm public servants for doing their jobs to enforce our criminal laws, it potentially weakens the very foundation of our society.”

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller’s team, said it was “chilling” that Trump’s lawyers sought to distance the president’s rhetoric from his supporters’ actions in appealing Chutkan’s gag order.

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The filing essentially says “I can say whatever I want, and if people act on it, don’t look at me,” Weissmann told MSNBC.

“That I find the most chilling because any responsible person who is trying to avoid violence, who is trying to avoid the fear and intimidation … would be saying ‘I’m trying to do everything to not have that happen, to not be using my words in a way that they would be used for that,’” he said.

“Any normal person would be trying to make sure that they wouldn’t in any way be responsible for harming another person,” he added. “And this is quite the contrary where you have the government correctly saying, ‘These words he knows darn well are going to lead to these consequences.’”