WASHINGTON (AP) Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Donald Trump will argue in court Monday over a proposed gag order aimed at reining in the former presidents diatribes against likely witnesses and others in his 2020 election interference case in Washington .

In pressing U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to impose the narrow gag order, special counsel Jack Smiths team has accused the Republican of using increasingly incendiary rhetoric to try to undermine the publics confidence in the justice system and taint the jury pool.

Trumps defense has called the proposal an unconstitutional effort to silence his political speech as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

This desperate effort at censorship is unconstitutional on its face, his lawyers wrote in court papers.