Special counsel Jack Smith is making a second request that a gag order be imposed on former President Donald Trump after Judge Alieen Cannon rejected the previous motion.
Smith’s request would bar Trump from making statements about the law enforcement officers who searched his Mar-a-Lago home and found large stashes of classified documents. In Florida, Trump is charged on 40 counts stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House and efforts to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation.
“These deceptive and inflammatory claims expose the law enforcement professionals who are involved in this case to unjustified and unacceptable risks: they invite the sort of threats and harassment that have occurred when other participants in legal proceedings against Trump have been targeted by his invective,” prosecutors Jay Bratt and David Harbach wrote.
Smith originally made the request in response to a claim Trump made last week regarding the FBI agents who searched his home in August 2022, stating they were “authorized to shoot me” and were “locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”
During the search, FBI agents used their standard use-of-force policy, which prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject being searched has an intent to harm the officer or another person.
The prosecution said Trump’s comments have created “a grossly misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement agents—falsely suggesting that they were complicit in a plot to assassinate him—and expose those agents, some of whom will be witnesses at trial, to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment.”
In a statement, Trump’s lawyers said the request was “a blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of President Trump and the American People, which would in effect allow President Trump’s political opponent to regulate his campaign communications to voters across the country.”
Trump’s legal team took issue with the timing of Smith’s original request, which was made on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend, calling the timing “suspicious.” Smith’s second request also came in late on a Friday, which could be worrying for his team because Cannon said “sufficient time” needs to be given or parties could be subject to sanctions.
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“Any future, non-emergency motion brought in this case — whether on the topic of release conditions or anything else — shall not be filed absent meaningful, timely, and professional conferral,” Cannon said.
The trial has no set start date yet and has moved slowly so far.
