Judge Rejects Jack Smith's Request for Trump Gag Order

This one is out of the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 28, 2024 12:03 PM CDT
Judge Rejects Jack Smith's Request for Trump Gag Order
Special counsel Jack Smith.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The judge in Donald Trump's classified documents case has rejected a request from special counsel Jack Smith for a gag order on the former president. Smith's team argued that Trump was putting law enforcement agents in danger by falsely suggesting that agents executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago were authorized to assassinate him. On social media, Trump wrote that agents were "locked & loaded ready to take me out" during the FBI search in 2022. Allies such as Marjorie Taylor Greene ran with it, alleging that President Biden was "planning to assassinate" his rival, reports Axios.

As the AP explains, Trump was making what the news outlet describes as a "distorted claim" about a standard use-of-force policy that prohibits the use of deadly force unless the "subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person." The FBI issued a statement emphasizing that agents followed standard protocol during the search. Defense attorneys called the proposed restrictions on Trump's comments unconstitutional, and the judge, Aileen Cannon, criticized Smith's team for failing to properly reach out to them before filing the motion.

"The Court finds the Special Counsel's pro forma 'conferral' to be wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy," wrote Cannon, per the Hill. However, Cannon declined to censure prosecutors over the request, as the defense wanted, per USA Today. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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