What is at stake? The prosecutors wanted a broad protective order covering all discovery material. Trump's team wanted a narrower order
What's a protective order?
Protective orders on discovery material
generally demand that the defense employ discovery evidence only to pursue actions related to the case itself and not to release it widely and seek to try the case in the court of public opinion before it reaches a courtroom.
It's a way of ensuring that the case moves forward in an orderly fashion
This is not unique to this case.
The following is from few different twitter accounts
Did the judge agree with the prosecutors? No. Did the judge agree with Trump's lawyers? Yes. Kinda
What did the judge say?
The judge issued a protective order, but not as broad as the prosecution wanted. So she agreed with the defense's motion, but then she limited this in a number of ways.
"At this point, I'm not persuaded that the government has shown good cause to subject to the protective order all the information in this case." She adopts defense proposal.
However, the prosecutor says the vast majority of material will be sensitive, protected material which means it can't be discussed publicly by Trump or his lawyers.
Trump's team then argued for exceptions to the sensitive material and she denied most or all of them.
In one case, Trump's team wanted to allow "volunteer attorneys" or other non-retained lawyers to review discovery with Trump because of the volume. She denied this saying this language was too broad and could be taken to mean the unindicted co-conspirators could discuss the case and the discovery. She asked them to refile this.
Anyone who reviews discovery for Trump to sign a statement promising to protect info.
All of the audio recordings with witnesses are deemed sensitive.
Limitations on Trump's handling of the evidence are put in place which are pretty strict. "Trump can review the materials by himself but says counsel must review any notes Trump takes to ensure no personal identifying information is kept. He can't have access, during review, to electronic devices or copy machine." During a break for, say lunch, he must give the materials back to whoever is safeguarding them.
Trump's lawyer John Lauro, several times argued that Trump needs to be free to speak, he will be on the campaign trail after all and doesn't want this to be a contempt trap, he also mentioned this would "chill' Trump's first amendment rights.
The judge replied several times that political considerations and Trump's "day job" are not part of this case and as a criminal defendant he has accepted release conditions that he has restrictions like every other criminal defendant.
Lauro agreed Trump will follow the rules of the protective order and the Judge ended by cautioning any statements even ambiguous ones that might affect witnesses or jurors will be addressed.
yeah, she started off grilling the Prosecutors saying why she wasn't giving them the whole enchilada and then turned and grilled Trump's team explaining why there were going to be strict limits in place.