A federal judge rejected a gag order request from Special Counsel Jack Smith in the mishandling of classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump.
United States District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed a motion from Smith requesting the former president to be barred from making negative comments about law enforcement. Trump’s campaign denounced the FBI after last week’s revelation that the agency had been authorized to use deadly force during the August 2022 raid at Mar-a-Lago. In a fundraising email, Trump said the federal agents were authorized to shoot him.
According to The Hill, Judge Cannon “chastised” Smith on May 28 for failing to meaningfully reach out to Trump’s legal team about the matter.
“The Court finds the Special Counsel’s pro forma ‘conferral’ to be wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy,” she wrote in her order. “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.”
In his motion filed on May 24, Smith argued Trump had mischaracterized the orders and had “endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case,” per HuffPost.
“A restriction prohibiting future similar statements does not restrict legitimate speech,” he wrote. “Trump’s conditions of release should therefore be modified to prohibit similar communications going forward.”
Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise, attorneys for Trump, responded with a separate filing and argued Smith’s request “improperly asks the Court to impose an unconstitutional gag order.” The lawyers said the government’s claims were “based on vague and unsupported assertions about threats to law enforcement personnel whose names have been redacted from public filings and whose identities are already subject to a protective order.”
Trump’s legal team stated:The Motion is an extraordinary, unprecedented, and unconstitutional censorship application. The Motion unjustly targets President Trump’s campaign speech while he is the leading candidate for the presidency. The Motion also treads new—extremely problematic— ground as a requested prior restraint that is different in kind from the unconstitutional gag orders that prosecutors have sought in New York and Washington, D.C. Specifically, the Office seeks to condition President Trump’s liberty on his conformance with the views of Jack Smith and Smith’s associates about what constitutes appropriate argument based on the record in this case, and to require the Probation Office and the Court to mediate disputes against a backdrop of potentially imprisoning a political opponent who is successfully defeating Smith’s boss and preferred candidate.
Cannon denied the defense’s request that she censure Smith over the gag order request.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 40 federal counts relating to keeping allegedly classified documents and national security records at his Florida residence after leaving the White House in 2021. He has also been accused of obstructing the Department of Justice’s effort to remove them.
