A federal judge on Sunday reinstated a gag order she imposed on Donald Trump in the Washington case accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, preventing him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and court officials.

The order prohibited Trump from targeting Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting his case or witnesses who might be called to testify about his efforts to upend his election loss.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order on October 16 at the Justice Department’s request. 

She temporarily lifted it on October 20 after Trump’s lawyers appealed, arguing that the gag order was vaguely worded, unmanageable and unnecessary. 

She reversed that decision on Sunday evening, according to the court’s docket.

Donald Trump, pictured on Sunday at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, has had a gag order placed on him by the judge overseeing his January 6 case in Washington DC

The Washington gag order is separate to one imposed by the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial in New York City.

Trump on Sunday reacted with fury to Chutkan’s ruling. 

‘The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech,’ he wrote on Truth Social.

‘NOT CONSTITUTIONAL!’

Read Related Also: Judge dismisses Birmingham-Southern College lawsuit against state treasurer Young Boozer over denied loan application

Trump in the past has called Special Counsel Jack Smith a ‘deranged lunatic’ and a ‘thug,’ among other insults. 

Trump is facing four criminal cases and has made disparaging comments about prosecutors in each of them, as well as against the New York state attorney general who brought civil fraud charges against him.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to interfere unlawfully in the counting of votes and block the congressional certification of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

Judge Tanya Chutkan on Sunday reimposed a gag order on Trump, which was initially imposed on October 16, and then lifted on October 20

Enforcing the gag orders is proving complicated.

Trump has twice run afoul of a narrow gag order placed on him by the Judge Arthur Engoron, overseeing his civil fraud trial in New York, and has been fined a total of $15,000. 

Engoron has warned of harsher fines, contempt of court and possible imprisonment.

‘This court is way beyond the ‘warning’ stage,’ Justice Engoron wrote last week when he levied the first $5,000 punishment, which he called ‘nominal.’

Engoron is considered likely to try every option before jail, which would be a nightmare from a logistical and political perspective.