The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago rejected special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order against the former president Tuesday.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, said Mr. Smith failed to communicate with the former president’s counsel before requesting the gag order over the weekend.
She said it was “wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy.”
“It should go without saying that meaningful conferral is not a perfunctory exercise. Sufficient time needs to be afforded to permit reasonable evaluation of the requested relief by opposing counsel and to allow for adequate follow-up discussion as necessary about the specific factual and legal basis underlying the motion,” the judge added.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers had sought sanctions against the government attorneys for filing the gag request without meeting with them beforehand, but the judge also denied that request.
Mr. Smith sought the gag order in the classified documents case Friday to keep the former president from talking about the raid on his Mar-a-Lago compound.
The Smith request came after Mr. Trump claimed in an email to supporters last week that President Biden was “locked & loaded and ready to take me out” during the FBI’s raid of his Florida estate in August 2022.
Mr. Trump faces 40 charges of mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s retrieval of the records after he left the White House. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He calls the case bogus since he’s protected by the Presidential Records Act.
The special counsel noted in the court filing that the raid was intentionally done when Mr. Trump and his family were not there and that the search was coordinated with the Secret Service.
Mr. Smith asked the judge to impose a condition that would prevent Mr. Trump from making public statements that could “pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to the law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”
He added, “Whether a particular statement meets that test ’must be determined by reference to the statement’s full context.’ But that condition would clearly prohibit further statements deceptively claiming that the agents involved in the execution of the search warrant were engaged in an effort to kill him, his family or Secret Service agents.”
He further argued that a gag was necessary because Mr. Trump’s claim could expose law enforcement, some of whom might be witnesses at his trial, to threats of violence.
“Those statements create 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,” Mr. Smith wrote.
Mr. Trump’s trial was slated for this month, but Judge Cannon postponed the case over issues with how the classified documents at the center of the case would be handled during a trial.
She has yet to establish a new trial date.
Mr. Trump’s fundraising email raised the alarm for Justice Department officials and lawmakers concerned about political violence.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday the former president’s claim was “false, and it is extremely dangerous.”
He added, “The document that has been referred to in the allegation is the Justice Department standard policy limiting the use of force. As the FBI advises, it is part of the standard operations plan for searches and, in fact, it was even used in the consensual search of President Biden’s home.”
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.