Better off bread wrote:
Can someone explain the protective order that Jack Smith sent out?
“Prosecutors said Trump’s use of evidence obtained in discovery “could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case."
isn’t that Trump’s whole strategy? He wants to adversely affect the administration of justice. That way he doesn’t go to jail.
Why would a lawyer say, “you better not tell anyone about the case, or else we can find you guilty of a crime.”
Most cases that involve documentary evidence from third parties have a protective order regarding information in the case (and other things). It's standard practice in federal courts. Many documents and testimony in a case are confidential and/or sensitive for a variety of reasons so courts put restrictions on what the parties can do with information in discovery -- the big restriction usually being the parties can't disclose the documents or information publicly.
If parties violate protective orders, courts have a wide variety of sanctions or punishments, ranging from telling them not to do it again, to harsher stuff like monetary sanctions, excluding evidence from trial, providing adverse instructions to the jury, etc. And more - if the violation is really bad, you can be found in contempt and locked up.
Trump's lawyers will have a hard time getting their impulsive egomaniac client to comply and I'm sure are freaking out about it because the lawyers can be sanctioned for what Trump does. No lawyer wants a sanction on their record.