Prosecutors in former President Donald Trump’s classified document case have renewed their request to a federal judge to censor the Republican front-runner after he claimed the FBI was authorized to kill him during a raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022, Politico reported Friday.
On Friday, special counsel Jack Smith’s team reiterated their request, four days after U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon criticized them for not making an adequate effort to resolve the issue with Trump’s lawyers before bringing it to her.
The motion argued that Trump’s claims about FBI authorization to use deadly force endanger the agents involved in the search and those connected to the ongoing criminal case.
“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. The prosecutors also suggested that Trump’s ability to speak on the case could impact potential jurors, although a trial date has not yet been set.
In the new filing, prosecutors cited a series of social media posts and political fundraising emails from the former president and his campaign — remarks such as “Biden’s DOJ was authorized to shoot me!” and “Joe Biden was locked & loaded and ready to take out me & put my family in danger.”
The origin of Trump’s remarks, according to Politico, stems from the language in the FBI’s operation plan related to the search procedures allowing for the use of deadly force. However, FBI officials have maintained that the language used in the novel raid of a president’s home is standard in virtually all such plans and is designed to limit the use of deadly force — not escalate it.
Additionally, the agency noted that the raid was executed when Trump was not at home in order to prevent any mishap.
Prosecutors also asked Cannon, a Trump appointee, to change the former president’s release conditions to prevent him “from making statements posing a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”
Trump’s attorneys responded to the gag order, writing: “President Trump’s position is that the requested modification is 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.”
Smith did not ask Cannon to speed up the consideration of his request. Trump requested two weeks to respond to the gag order request and has asked the judge to wait until the court’s probation office reviews with prosecutors about the need for it before starting the response period.
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