Prosecutors working in secret files urge judge to bar Trump from provocative comments about FBI – Winnipeg Free Press

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) – A federal judge leading a classified documents investigation against Donald Trump hears arguments Monday on whether to bar the former president from public comments that prosecutors say could endanger the lives of FBI agents working on the case.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team says the restrictions are necessary in light of Trump’s false comments that FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate for secret documents in August 2022 wanted to kill him and his family. Trump’s lawyers argue that any gag order would improperly silence Trump in the heat of a presidential campaign in which he is the presumptive Republican nominee.

It was not immediately clear when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee whose conduct in the case has been closely scrutinized, would issue a ruling. Before turning her attention to the limited silence order sought by prosecutors, she is scheduled to hear additional arguments Monday morning related to the Justice Department’s appointment and funding of Smith, whose team brought the indictment.

The arguments are part of a three-day hearing that began Friday and addresses some of the many unresolved legal issues that have arisen in the case, which was set for trial last month but has been hampered by delays and a slow pace. Cannon has postponed the trial indefinitely, and it is almost certain that it will not take place before the November presidential elections.

Trump faces dozens of charges for illegally collecting top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago and obstructing the FBI’s efforts to recover them. Given the extensive evidence presented by prosecutors, many legal experts considered the case the simplest of the four cases against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty. Cannon, however, has been slow to comment on numerous motions and has shown himself willing to grant defense requests that prosecutors say are baseless.

Smith’s team objected last month after Trump claimed the FBI was prepared to kill him while executing a court-approved search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022. He was referring to established language in FBI policy that prohibits using the words deadly force unless the search officer reasonably believes that “the subject matter of such force creates an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person.”