FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Donald TrumpUS defense attorneys on Monday strongly opposed special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a silence order, telling the judge in the classified documents case that it could be used against Trump during this week’s presidential debate .
If the judge grants the special counsel’s request and Trump said something during the debate that appears to violate the order, prosecutors “could get a warrant and, if signed, they could arrest him,” Trump attorney Todd warned Blanche during a court hearing. .
Smith’s team has asked Judge Aileen Cannon to order Trump to stop falsely claiming the FBI had authority to kill him and his family when agents searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022. Prosecutors want Cannon to impose the restriction on Trump’s speech through a change to his pretrial release conditions in the documents case — meaning if he violates the restriction, he could be sent to prison.
As Smith looked on in the courtroom, his deputies said Monday that Trump’s false comments about the search could endanger law enforcement officials.
Cannon, a Trump appointee, appeared skeptical of the prosecutor’s position and asked for examples of how Trump’s speech directly led to threats. She asked both parties to submit additional documentation by Wednesday.
During a tense exchange, Cannon reprimanded prosecutor David Harbach when he told her he hadn’t been able to finish his points because of her questions. She snapped at him to have one of the other prosecutors take his place if he didn’t change his tone.
“I would expect decorum at all times,” she said, before asking the attorney to “reset.”
Cannon also asked Harbach if there was a less restrictive way to deal with concerns about violence, such as redacting the names of FBI agents from court documents or responding to specific threats. Harbach responded that Trump, as a defendant, has no right to make comments that he called “false, inflammatory and inviting retaliatory violence.”
He argued that Trump has the right to criticize President Joe Biden, especially as the first presidential debate approaches Thursday.
In a fundraising email in May, Trump accused FBI agents in the Mar-a-Lago search of trying to harm him, saying they were “locked and loaded, ready to get me out and my family in to endanger” and “just eager to do the unthinkable.”
The claim was apparently inspired by language in an FBI operations plan related to the search that detailed when agents could use deadly force. The language is standard in such plans, and officials said it is intended to limit the use of force, not expand it. Trump was in Manhattan when agents searched his home.
The search in August 2022 turned up hundreds of classified documents and paved the way for Smith to indict Trump last year for violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice.
Cannon gave no indication Monday when she plans to rule on prosecutors’ request for a gag order. Trump is already subject to silence orders in two of his other criminal cases: the federal election subversion case and the Manhattan hush money case.
Monday’s proceedings on the gag order request were part of a three-day series of hearings Cannon is holding at her courthouse in Fort Pierce. She has postponed the trial date in the case indefinitely.
She also heard arguments Monday on a motion by Trump’s team to have the case dismissed due to alleged flaws in the funding of the special counsel’s office. Cannon also did not comment on that issue or indicate her position on it, but asked detailed questions about how much the government paid for the various investigations and the agency’s history.
