Judge rejects special counsel request to limit Trump’s speech in classified documents case

washington – The federal judge overseeing special counsel Jack Smith’s confidential documents case against former President Donald Trump denied request from the Public Prosecutor’s Office that the court impose a gag order in certain public statements that they said posed a danger to law enforcement.

In an order issued this Tuesday, Florida Judge Aileen Cannon rejected Smith’s motion that she amend Trump’s pretrial release conditions to prohibit him from making comments “similar” to those he has made in recent weeks, in which Smith alleged that Trump “endangered the police officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these processes.”

Cannon’s short ruling said she was denying the Justice Department’s motion “without prejudice,” meaning Smith could potentially file another motion. The judge questioned the special counsel’s handling of the request and wrote that prosecutors did not speak meaningfully with Trump’s defense team before filing the motion, as required by local rules.

The special counsel filed his motion Friday night after Trump’s lawyers said they asked him to delay so the parties could discuss the matter on Monday. Cannon wrote that prosecutors’ handling of the proceedings was “utterly devoid of substance and professional courtesy.”

The move by federal prosecutors to limit Trump’s public comments came after the former president made false claims that FBI agents were “authorized to shoot” him while executing a court-authorized search warrant at his Marquis residence. a-Lago in August 2022. It was during this search that agents recovered more than 100 documents with confidential markings from the residence as part of the federal investigation into the former president’s handling of confidential government records.

Smith alleged on Friday that Trump had “grossly distorted these standard practices, mischaracterizing them as a plot to kill him, his family and U.S. Secret Service agents.” His social media posts and campaign emails on the issue, prosecutors wrote, “pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement officials.”

The special counsel did not detail instances in which threats to law enforcement were linked to Trump’s most recent comments. Instead, he argued that the former president’s previous speech represented threats to witnesses and pointed to a 2022 case in which an individual attacked a local FBI office in Ohio.

On Monday, Trump’s team fired back, writing that Smith’s motion was “an extraordinary, unprecedented and unconstitutional application of censorship” that “unfairly targets President Trump’s campaign speech while he is the leading candidate for president.” .

Defense attorneys also questioned the way prosecutors presented their motion, accusing them of “rushing” to present it on Friday night, violating local rules that required them to discuss the matter together.

“Under no circumstances may an exchange of emails beginning at 5:30 pm on a Friday night constitute the type of conference required by [the rules],” Trump’s lawyer wrote, pointing to a series of emails with prosecutors. In those emails, prosecutors countered that Trump’s comment “necessitated an immediate request for relief that could not wait for the weekend to be filed.”

Trump’s defense team also asked Cannon to sanction prosecutors for alleged rule violations.

The judge opted Tuesday not to sanction Smith’s team but rejected the requested gag order.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment on the decision.

The special counsel’s Friday request came after Trump’s comments about the search of his residence, which followed the recent opening of documents from the 2022 Mar-a-Lago survey. These documents included a use of force policy for FBI agents that prohibits the use of deadly force except when agents are in imminent danger. Justice Department prosecutors said the language was “standard and unquestionable” and argued that “the FBI took extraordinary care to execute the search warrant discreetly and without unnecessary confrontation.”

“As planned, the FBI executed the search warrant in a professional and cooperative manner at a time when Trump and his family were out of state,” Smith’s team wrote Friday.

In a statement last week, the FBI said: “The FBI followed standard protocol in this search, as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. There has been no deviation from the norm in this matter.”

The special counsel charged Trump with 40 counts in the Southern District of Florida that accused him of illegally withholding national defense information from his time in the White House. He and two aides are also accused of working to obstruct the federal investigation.

All three have pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier this month, Cannon delayed the trial process indefinitely as he said the parties had to continue working through pretrial motions.