Trump responds to special counsel’s effort to limit his remarks about FBI in documents case

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers on Monday night rejected Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request on Friday that a federal judge in Florida modify the conditions of Trump’s release in the investigation into Trump’s handling of confidential documents.

Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the documents case, to modify the conditions of Trump’s release in order to prevent him from making public statements that “pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement officers” who are participating in the prosecution.

“Trump’s repeated mischaracterization of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to kill him, his family and Secret Service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings,” the officials said. promoters. Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump.

“A restriction prohibiting future similar statements does not restrict legitimate speech,” they said.

The special counsel’s request to Cannon followed a false claim by Trump last week that F.B.I. who searched his Mar-a-Lago property in August 2022 they were “authorized to shoot me” and were “locked and loaded, ready to take me out and put my family in danger.”

Trump was referring to the disclosure in a court document that the FBI, during the search, followed a standard use of force policy that prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the “Subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person.”

The policy is routine and intended to limit the use of force during searches. Prosecutors noted that the search was intentionally conducted while Trump and his family were away and was coordinated with the Secret Service. No force was used.

Prosecutors on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team argued in a court filing Friday that Trump’s statements falsely suggesting that federal agents “were complicit in a conspiracy to assassinate him” exposed the officers “to the risk of threats, violence and harassment”. Some of them are expected to be called as witnesses in Trump’s trial.

But Trump’s lawyers on Monday called Smith’s request an “extraordinary, unprecedented and unconstitutional censorship” and said in their filing: “[t]The motion unfairly targets President Trump’s campaign speech while he is the leading candidate for president.”

They argue that Smith is going further than any previous requests from any other prosecutor in the cases against the former president because the prosecution’s motion ties Trump’s freedom to his campaign speech.

The former president also argues that prosecutors violated local rules by not properly “conferring” with them before filing the motion. Trump’s lawyers said Smith’s team, in filing the motion on Friday night, a holiday, before closing arguments this week, in New York’s separate criminal case against Trump, they failed to offer a reasonable concession period, which they claim is required by local rules in the Southern District of Florida. Trump’s lawyers provided email correspondence between the parties Friday night as evidence.

Trump also asked Cannon to sanction the Justice Department’s legal team for allegedly violating local rules.

Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this week called Trump’s claim “extremely dangerous.” Garland noted that the document Trump was referring to is a standard policy limiting the use of force that was even used in the consensual search of President Joe Biden’s home as part of an investigation into the Democrat’s handling of classified documents.

trump faces dozens of criminal charges accusing him of illegally accumulating at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, confidential documents he took with him after leaving the White House in 2021, and obstructing the FBI’s efforts to recover them. He pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

It’s one of four criminal cases Trump faces as he tries to reclaim the White House, but outside the current case against secret money in New YorkIt is unclear whether any of the other three will be tried before the election.

—Robert Legare contributed reporting.