Prosecutors ask judge in classified documents case to block Trump from making statements that endanger law enforcement
Former President Donald Trump watches before the start of his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court during his trial in New York City May 20, 2024.
Mark Peterson | Via Reuters
Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s house secret file The Florida case on Friday asked a federal judge to block the former president from making public statements that pose a “substantial, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agencies.” Law Enforcement” is investigating and prosecuting the case.
Request to US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, will go after the former president this week false statement in a post by Truth Social that the Biden administration “AUTHORIZED the FBI TO USE DEADLY FORCE (KILLER)” during the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. Trump’s campaign also requested in a fundraising email that President Joe Biden was “locked and ready to take me out” during a search of his confidential Mar-a-Lago property.
Prosecutors at special counsel Jack Smith’s office said in court filings that the agents acted “in an appropriate and professional manner, following the Department of Justice’s standard use of force policy.” law” and argued that Trump’s statements posed a threat to law enforcement agencies.
“Trump’s repeated misrepresentation of these facts in widely distributed text messages as an attempt to kill him, his family, and Secret Service agents endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threaten the integrity of these proceedings.” . “Therefore, a restriction prohibiting future similar statements should be modified to prohibit similar future communications.”
In making the allegations, Trump and his campaign appeared to be quoting Recently unsealed court records related to the 2022 search. Records show the judge overseeing the case at the time questioned how the former president could not have realized he had extremely sensitive documents in his bedroom .
Trump was in New Jersey when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
“As Trump was well aware,” prosecutors noted in Friday’s filing, the FBI “took great care to execute the search warrant discreetly and without unnecessary confrontation,” it said. scheduled the search at a time when the former president and his family were away.
Prosecutors said Trump’s lawyers objected to the motion as well as their timing.
The prosecutors’ request was to modify Trump’s release conditions, which differed from the request gag order.
When a former president is indicted, the bond ensures that his continued release is contingent on his compliance with certain terms.
In making the request, prosecutors are asking that Trump face higher fines if he makes statements that the court finds dangerous to law enforcement.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night, but a campaign spokesman said in an email that “Joe Biden is a fraud and his scammers and thugs is obsessed with trying to strip President Trump and all American voters of their First Amendment rights.” .”
“The ongoing efforts to silence President Trump during the presidential campaign are blatant attempts to interfere in the election,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung wrote. “They are the last ditch efforts of desperate Progressive Democrats running a failed campaign for a failed president.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday rejected Trump’s claim of authorized use of deadly force during the search, calling the allegation “wrong” and “extremely dangerous“, in a press conference.
In a rare statement days earlier, following Trump’s initial statements, the FBI also said that it had “followed standard procedure in this search as we do for all search warrants.” review” and no additional steps are required for Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he intentionally withheld national defense information related to classified documents discovered at his Florida mansion after he left office and that he ordered staff to Mar-a-Lago deleted security video at this mansion. The trial has been postponed indefinitely.
