U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon laid into a prosecutor with special counsel Jack Smith’s team on Monday during a hearing in which the Department of Justice wanted to put limits on former President Donald Trump’s speech.
Cannon is overseeing Trump’s trial in federal court in Florida on allegations he mishandled classified documents. Prosecutors are demanding she impose a gag order on Trump, according to Fox News.
Cannon lashed out at prosecutor David Harbach, saying at one point he was being snippy.
“I don’t appreciate your tone,” Cannon told Harbach, according to CNN.
She told him she would “appreciate decorum at all times.”
“If you aren’t able to do that, I’m sure one of your colleagues can take up arguing this motion,” she said.
CNN did not report what Harbach said that drew Cannon’s fire, but did report that the attorney later apologized to the judge.
During the hearing, Cannon said that the prosecution needed to specifically connect statements Trump made with any incitement to violence.
The law under which a gag order is being sought “still requires a finding” that there is a risk associated with a defendant’s speech, she said, according to CNN.
Is Trump being persecuted?
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“There still needs to be a factual connection between A and B,” Cannon said.
During the hearing, Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche said Trump made no threats against FBI agents.
“The attacks, very clearly, are against President Biden,” Blanche said of Trump’s communications at issue.
“Of course, President Trump has absolutely no desire for anything bad to happen to law enforcement,” Blanche said, referring to a Trump post on his Truth Social platform that declared that the Justice Department “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY,” according to The Washington Post.
“It is a critique of President Biden and his Justice Department and it is completely fair and protected political speech,” he said.
Harbach, however, claimed Trump’s comments are “way out of bounds” and “nothing like speech that should be protected by the First Amendment,” according to CNN.
Blanche said prosecutors are too vague in their allegations, suggesting they want to punish Trump for comments made by others.
“Steve Bannon making a comment is potentially the kind of thing that could send President Trump to jail,” Blanche said.
Also ]during the hearing, defense attorney Emil Bove argued Monday that the special counsel’s office was funded by an unconstitutional “permanent indefinite appropriation” not covered by the budget process, according to ABC.
“Is there any cap to the funding?” Cannon asked.
“No, and I think that is part of the reason … to be very wary of who can access it and why,” Bove said. “There is no check on the scope of what’s going on here.”
