Special Counsel Jack Smith Friday submission They asked the judge over former President Trump’s classified documents case to block him from speaking about the case in a way that could put law enforcement officers at risk.
In his petition, Smith asked the court to impose conditions barring Trump from making public statements that “may pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agencies investigating and prosecuting this case.”
“Whether a particular statement meets that standard must be determined by reference to the full context of the statement,” the filing states, “but that condition would clearly bar any further statements that misleadingly allege that the agents involved in executing the search warrant were planning to kill him, his family, or Secret Service agents.”
The move comes after Biden falsely claimed in an email on Wednesday that he was “prepared and ready to remove me,” a twist of terminology approved by police as they prepare to search Biden’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022 for classified records.
In reality, this language only authorizes the use of deadly force “when necessary,” meaning when someone “poses an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another person.”
Prosecutors said in the lawsuit that the FBI’s search of the Palm Beach resort was deliberately conducted while Trump and his family were away from home, adding that the investigation was conducted in coordination with the Secret Service and no coercion was used.
In their arguments, prosecutors said Trump’s false claims could expose law enforcement officials – some of whom they said will be witnesses at Trump’s trial – to threats of violence and harassment.
“The Government’s request is necessary because President Trump recently made several intentionally false and inflammatory statements that misrepresent the circumstances surrounding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s planning and execution of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant,” the court documents state.
“These statements paint a highly misleading impression about the intent and actions of federal law enforcement officers, falsely suggest that they were complicit in an assassination plot, and expose those who will testify at trial to risk of intimidation, violence and harassment,” the prosecutors added.
Attorney General Merrick Garland also pushed back against Trump’s allegations on Thursday, calling them “extremely dangerous.”
“The allegations are false and extremely dangerous,” Garland said. “The documents referenced in the allegations are standard Department of Justice policies restricting the use of force.”
“As advised by the FBI, this is part of the standard operating plan for searches and, in fact, was used in the consensual search of President Biden’s home,” he added.
The former president faces 40 charges since leaving the White House, including mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to recover them. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial was scheduled to begin on May 20, but Judge Eileen Cannon refused to set a trial date and postponed some trial dates until late July, postponing the trial indefinitely. Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, said the delay was due to the need to resolve issues regarding how to handle classified documents in the trial.
Cannon’s move is consistent with an initial request by Trump’s legal team that no trial date be set.
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