The federal judge overseeing the investigation into Donald Trump’s withholding of classified documents expressed deep reservations on Monday that changing the former president’s bail conditions and preventing him from making statements that could endanger FBI agents, arguing that removing their names from applications was sufficient.
Trump-appointed U.S. district judge Aileen Cannon also repeatedly admonished prosecutor David Harbach, who was arguing on behalf of the special counsel, at one point saying she didn’t appreciate his tone and suggesting another prosecutor on the team would be on the job if he couldn’t contain his frustration. may present arguments instead.
Relating to: Trump to ask judge to toss attorney’s notes in Mar-a-Lago documents case
The hearing in federal district court in Fort Pierce, Florida, was a particularly bruising day for prosecutors; The judge expressed skepticism about the need to change Trump’s bail conditions at this point and then questioned the strength of the evidence.
The latest controversy over Trump’s incendiary statements stems from his apparent mischaracterization of the FBI’s deadly force policy when it executed a court-approved search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago club in August 2022 and seized more than 100 classified documents.
The order, which restricts FBI agents from using deadly force only when facing extreme danger and was made public after the release of the FBI’s operational plan for the search, used standard language routinely used in hundreds of arrest warrants executed across the country.
But Trump and some of his allies twisted the restrictive language, claiming the FBI was authorized by the Biden administration to shoot him while searching Mar-a-Lago, even though Trump was not present at the time of the search and the language was standard policy of the U.S. justice department.
“Crooked Joe Biden’s Justice Department AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE LETHAL (LETHAL) FORCE IN ITS Illegal and Unconstitutional Raid on Mar-a-Lago. WE NOW KNOW FOR SURE THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNfit to OFFICE – 25TH AMENDMENT!” Trump wrote in a social media post last month.
The post sparked backlash from the special counsel’s office, and prosecutors last month asked Cannon to review Trump’s bail conditions and bar him from making public comments that “pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.”
The request, in which prosecutors sought to limit Trump’s public statements for the first time in this case, was notable because it would have significantly increased Trump’s risk. Unlike other cases where prosecutors seek a gag order, violating release conditions carries the risk of prison time.
The judge, who does not make decisions from the bench in his typical practice, appeared unimpressed by the prosecutors’ arguments.
Cannon questioned why his order to remove witness identities from court files wasn’t enough to protect FBI agents involved in the case, and said he saw nothing in Trump’s post that amounted to a call to action or incitement of violence.
Harbach said the redactions were insufficient because their identities would be made public at the hearing, but Cannon quickly fired back and asked why it was necessary to proactively change Trump’s bail conditions at this point, rather than commit another joking act at the hearing.
Cannon also questioned why prosecutors failed to identify any threat directly stemming from Trump’s post.
Harbach said the records show that some of Trump’s supporters acted on Trump’s complaints and that threats were commonplace in Trump’s other cases. Cannon wasn’t satisfied with his answer and berated himself about the documents and evidence prosecutors presented specifically in the case.
“In this case, I have 11 exhibits,” Cannon said. “Are you suggesting that I get the facts from other cases because that’s not going to happen? Add them to the exhibits and I will examine them one by one.”
And Cannon advanced the argument that Harbach did not need to consider First Amendment concerns when deciding whether to modify Trump’s bail conditions because judges have the authority to preempt trial and society under the Bail Reform Act.
The lack of a direct link to Trump’s posts that led to his supporters’ actions had long been a point of contention for the judge, who referred prosecutors to the issue after they had previously requested a motion to force Trump to redact the identities of people involved. investigation.
That’s despite prosecutors reminding Cannon that just days after the Mar-a-Lago search, a man tried to shoot up an FBI office in Ohio and said “patriots” should go to Florida to defend Trump and kill FBI agents happened.
But Trump’s lawyers addressed the issue of causation for Cannon in their 20-page response, arguing that prosecutors had failed to cite a single example of an agent working on the documents case facing threats because of Trump’s inflammatory statements.
“President Trump and the defense are similarly unaware of any risk of hostility, harassment, or harm to any agents involved in this case based on President Trump’s statements,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.