Judge Chutkan orders swift hearing over Donald Trump protective order

That didn’t take long. Four hours after Donald Trump filed his response to Jack Smith’s request for a protective order, and one hour after Smith filed his reply to Trump’s response, Judge Chutkan has already ordered a swift hearing on the matter.

Chutkan has told Smith and Trump that by 3pm tomorrow they must agree on a hearing date no later than this Friday. Based on the filings that have been made by each side, it’s fairly clear already that Chutkan will rule in favor of Jack Smith and order a protective order barring Trump from discussing any details of the case. But that’s just the half of it.

Jack Smith has already included Trump’s social media post threatening prosecutors as evidence of why a protective order is needed. Trump has also since gone on to attack Mike Pence, a key trial witness against him, twice. Judge Chutkan will certainly end up addressing Trump’s behavior one way or another. No criminal defendant ever gets away with this kind of pretrial behavior, and while consequences are ramped up in increments, Trump will face those consequences if (and when) he keeps making these kinds of disallowed posts.