Hey everyone. It is just after 4 o'clock New York. I'm Alicia Menendez in

for Nicole Wallace. A big development today in an ongoing legal battle

with major stakes for our democracy and the question of whether everyone in this country is

equal under the law. A federal appeals court today has upheld a

gag order limiting what Donald Trump can say in the federal election

interference case. The three-judge panel that decided the issue has, however, narrowed the gag order.

Statements by Trump about Special Counsel Jack Smith, they are now fair game.

Comments about court staff, other lawyers, are barred.

Quote, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with or to cause others to materially interfere with,

councils or staffs works in this criminal case, or with the

the knowledge that such interference is highly likely to result.

And as our friend Lisa Rubin notes,

while Judge Tanya Chutkin's previous order barred statements,

quote, targeting witnesses, the new version of the gag order prohibits all quote,

public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential

participation in the investigation or in the criminal proceeding. The

judges say that the ruling is an attempt to strike a careful balance between

Donald Trump's free speech rights and his

position as a candidate for president and the need to protect the judicial

process in one of the most high stakes cases this country has ever seen.

Judge Patricia Milite writes,

we do not allow such an order lightly.

...