Special counsel Jack Smith continues to ask U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to silence former President Donald Trump by any means necessary ahead of an October 16 hearing on a proposed gag order.

Smith’s original request was unsealed last week, prompting Trump to respond on social media platforms and interview, which Smith’s office says bolsters their case to place a gag order on Trump.

In a 22-page filing, senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston said prosecutors rejected Trump’s claims that their proposed gag order was an attempt to silence him on the campaign trail. Rather, she said, it was an effort to prevent him from trying to make “use of his candidacy as a cover for making prejudicial public statements about this case.”

NEW: Jack Smith again begs Judge Chutkan to muzzle Donald Trump by claiming basically everyone is a "witness" in the Jan 6 case: pic.twitter.com/P4vBlRdjUG

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 1, 2023

“[T]here is no legitimate need for the defendant, in the course of his campaign, to attack known witnesses regarding the substance of their anticipated testimony,” Gaston wrote.

“[N]o other criminal defendant would be permitted to issue public statements insinuating that a known witness in his case should be executed,” Gaston wrote. “This defendant should not be, either.”