Special counsel Jack Smith on Friday sought a gag order against Donald Trump in the classified documents case to keep the former president from talking about the raid on his Mar-a-Lago compound.
Mr. Smith filed the request with the federal judge in Florida overseeing the case.
It comes after Mr. Trump claimed in an email to supporters this week that President Biden was “locked & loaded and ready to take me out” during the FBI’s raid of his Florida estate in August 2022.
Mr. Trump faces 40 charges of mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s retrieval of the records after he left the White House. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He calls the case bogus since he’s protected by the Presidential Records Act.
The special counsel noted in the court filing that the raid was intentionally done when Mr. Trump and his family were not there and that the search was coordinated with the Secret Service.
Mr. Smith asked the judge to impose a condition that would prevent Mr. Trump from making public statements that could “pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to the law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”
He added, “Whether a particular statement meets that test ‘must be determined by reference to the statement’s full context.’ But that condition would clearly prohibit further statements deceptively claiming that the agents involved in the execution of the search warrant were engaged in an effort to kill him, his family or Secret Service agents.”
He further argued that his request was necessary because Mr. Trump’s claim could expose law enforcement, some of whom could be witnesses at his trial, to threats of violence.
“Those statements create a grossly misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement agents — falsely suggesting that they were complicit in a plot to assassinate him — and expose those agents, some of whom will be witnesses at trial, to the risk of threats, violence and harassment,” Mr. Smith wrote.
Mr. Trump’s trial was slated for this month, but Judge Aileen Cannon postponed the case over issues with how the classified documents at the center of the case would be handled during a trial.
She has yet to establish a new trial date.
Mr. Trump’s fundraising email raised the alarm for Justice Department officials and lawmakers concerned about political violence that could ensue from his claim.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday said the former president’s claim was “false, and it is extremely dangerous.”
He added, “The document that has been referred to in the allegation is the Justice Department standard policy limiting the use of force. As the FBI advises, it is part of the standard operations plan for searches and, in fact, it was even used in the consensual search of President Biden’s home.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.