FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — The federal judge presiding over the classified documents prosecution of Donald Trump is hearing arguments Monday on whether to bar the former president from public comments that prosecutors say could endanger the lives of FBI agents working on the case.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team says the restrictions are necessary in light of Trump’s false comments that the FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022 for classified documents were out to kill him and his family. Trump’s lawyers say any gag order would improperly silence Trump in the heat of a presidential campaign in which he is the presumptive Republican nominee.
[…]
Smith’s team objected last month after Trump claimed that the FBI was prepared to kill him while executing a court-authorized search warrant of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022. He was referencing boilerplate language from FBI policy that prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the “subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”
DOJ Seeks to Muzzle Trump
The America that we remember and say we support is an America where people are allowed to voice their opinions. perspectives, and thoughts – even if those thoughts are exaggerated, contrarian, or flat out wrong. The DOJ and FBI are rogue and have a history of unjustifiably killing Americans in standoffs. Is Trump right that they were looking for an excuse to open fire? In this climate… with this FBI… who knows? What I do know is that he certainly has a right to voice his opinion in public.