- The Smiths team looked for a joke, citing the risk to law enforcement
- Judge Aileen Cannon said prosecutors failed to show “professional courtesy.”
Judge Aileen Cannon accused special prosecutor Jack Smith of making a “bad faith” request to impose a silence order on former President Trump following his claim that the FBI had the authority to shoot him during a search of Mar-a-Lago.
The federal judge ruled against Smith, saying federal prosecutors failed to show “professional courtesy” when they consulted with attorneys just before the start of the Memorial Day weekend.
Smith’s team asked the judge to impose a gag order on Trump for making inflammatory statements after Trump posted about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in the classified documents case.
“The court finds that the special counsel’s pro forma ‘award’ totally lacks substance and professional courtesy,” wrote Cannon, a Trump appointee who was confirmed by the Senate just days after the 2020 election.
“It should go without saying that meaningful transfer is not a perfunctory exercise,” she said.
Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that prosecutors ignored “professional courtesy” with a request that she release a joke about former President Donald Trump just before the start of Memorial Day weekend. They wanted to block inflammatory statements after Trump wrote that officers had permission to shoot him
Trump’s statements came after a newly released dossier revealed a “statement of policy” regarding the “use of deadly force” in conjunction with the search for classified documents in the former president’s home.
It contained boilerplate language stating that officers planned to carry a “Standard Issue Weapon.”[s]”, “Ammunition”, “Handcuffs” and that “for example, “Department of Justice law enforcement officers may use lethal force when necessary…”
Trump abused the language in online messages and emails.
‘TRUMP’S BREAKING: BIDEN’S DOJ WAS AUTHORIZED TO SHOOT ME!’ read an email from Trump. He called it: ‘I almost escaped death.’
“It’s just been revealed that Biden’s DOJ had permission to use DEADLY FORCE for their HORRIBLE raid on Mar-a-Lago,” he wrote in another post.
Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned the comments Thursday, calling Trump’s claims “false” and “extremely dangerous.”
Jack Smith’s team had cited “several deliberately false and inflammatory statements” from Trump in their search for the joke
Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon said prosecutors lacked ‘professional courtesy’
The AG said the language was part of a “standard operating plan” for officers preparing to execute a search warrant.
The decision comes weeks after Cannon postponed Trump’s trial indefinitely, citing pretrial and classification issues, and postponed a scheduled May 20 start date.
Judges have imposed gag orders on Trump in other cases, including the hush-money trial of Stormy Daniels underway in Manhattan.
Jack Smith’s team had cited “several deliberately false and inflammatory statements” in their own filing. They said it gave a “grossly misleading impression” that they were “complicit in a plot to kill him.”
Smith wanted to change Trump’s release conditions, citing the risk of “threats, violence and intimidation” to law enforcement.
Trump’s team strongly opposed the requested order, which they called an unconstitutional jab at the former president.
“The motion is an extraordinary, unprecedented, and unconstitutional application of censorship,” attorneys led by Chris Kise wrote.