The judge in former President Trump’s classified documents case allowed for the shielding of names of potential government witnesses in a ruling issued Tuesday.
Special counsel Jack Smith asked to conceal the names of potential government witnesses in motions by Trump’s legal team, stating the witnesses could face threats and harassment.
“Although the Special Counsel’s request remains sweeping in nature as applied to all potential government witnesses without differentiation and although the Court was unable to locate another high-profile case (in publicly available records) in which a court granted a broad-based pre-trial request to seal the identities of all potential prosecution witnesses as sought here — the Court is satisfied that the Special Counsel has made an adequate showing on this issue,” U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said in her Tuesday ruling.
Cannon then directed Smith to “file under seal an index containing the name of each potential government witness and a corresponding pseudonym/anonymization for use in the redactions.”
Trump has gone after figures involved in his high-profile legal cases, including judges and their family members, in social media posts and speeches. He recently made a target of the daughter of the judge in his New York hush money case for appearing to be behind a social media account that used a photo illustration of Trump in prison as a profile picture, according to The Associated Press.
“So, let me get this straight,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post “The Judge’s daughter is allowed to post pictures of her ‘dream’ of putting me in jail, the Manhattan D.A. is able to say whatever lies about me he wants, the Judge can violate our Laws and Constitution at every turn, but I am not allowed to talk about the attacks against me, and the Lunatics trying to destroy my life, and prevent me from winning the 2024 Presidential Election, which I am dominating?”
The Hill has reached out to Trump’s legal team for comment.