FORT PIERCE – The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case will hear arguments Monday, June 24, on whether the former president should be barred from making comments that prosecutors say harmed the lives of FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Special Counsel Jack Smith asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to issue a limited gag order after Trump alleged that agents who searched his Palm Beach home for classified documents were prepared to kill him. Trump wrote in a fundraising email that the armed officers were “locked and loaded, ready to take me out and endanger my family,” despite the fact that officers executed the search warrant while he and his family were out of state .
Trump said the officers were “just eager to do the unthinkable.” His comments follow standard wording in FBI policy that authorizes deadly force in cases of “imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or any other person.”
Who is Aileen Cannon? What you need to know about the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the classified documents case
Cannon initially denied the request for a silence order on a technicality, admonishing prosecutors for not adequately consulting with Trump’s legal team before requesting it. Prosecutors subsequently extended the request and are prepared to argue for it on Monday.
They say Trump’s comments could threaten the lives of FBI agents and other law enforcement officials involved in the case, pointing to an attempted attack on an FBI office in Ohio three days after the Mar-a-house search Lago. Trump’s lawyers say any restriction would infringe on his freedom of speech.
Trump’s hearing is the second of three at the Fort Pierce federal courthouse
Monday’s proceedings are part of a three-day hearing that began Friday and continues Tuesday. The successive proceedings address a series of other unresolved pretrial issues, including a defense motion to exclude evidence seized by the FBI during the Mar-a-Lago search, as well as another motion to dismiss charges.
Some Trump critics and legal analysts have questioned Cannon’s willingness to hear defense arguments that prosecutors say are “meritless.” The New York Times reported Thursday that two judges — including the chief federal judge in the Southern District of Florida — urged Cannon to throw out the case after she was randomly assigned to oversee it. Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench in January 2020, declined to do so.
She has come under scrutiny over her handling of the case since she was selected to oversee it, both for taking months to issue rulings and for filing dubious legal claims — all of which faced a trial before the presidential election in make November unlikely.
Cannon has not hinted at a possible trial date since she postponed it in May. Prosecutors have suggested it could start in early July, while Trump’s lawyers have argued it should start no earlier than August. The Republican National Convention takes place July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
Accused of hoarding classified documents and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them, Trump and his aides Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.
Hannah Phillips is a public safety and criminal justice journalist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump secret documents case: Judge considers silence order
