WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday Classified documents lawsuit against Donald Trump It would ban former presidents from making public statements that “pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger” to law enforcement agencies involved in the prosecution.
The request to U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon came after Trump said earlier this week that FBI agents had The Mar-a-Lago mansion was searched in August 2022. They “had the authority to shoot me” and “were prepared to shoot and kill me and put my family in danger.”
The Republican presidential candidate Disclosure in court documents During the search, the FBI followed its standard use of force policy, which prohibits the use of deadly force unless the officer conducting the search reasonably believes that “the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another person.”
The policy is routine and intended to limit the use of force during searches. Prosecutors noted that the searches were deliberately conducted while Trump and his family were away and were coordinated with the Secret Service. No force was used.
Prosecutors from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team said in court documents filed late Friday that Trump’s comments falsely suggesting federal agents “were involved in a plot to assassinate him” put law enforcement “at risk of intimidation, violence and harassment,” some of whom will be called as witnesses at Trump’s trial.
“Mr. Trump’s repeated misrepresentation of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to assassinate himself, his family, and Secret Service agents put at risk the law enforcement officers investigating and prosecuting this case and undermined the fairness of this trial,” prosecutors told Cannon, who was appointed to the judge by Trump.
“Restrictions that prohibit similar statements in the future do not restrict legitimate speech,” they said.
The defense is disputing the government’s allegations, according to prosecutors. Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday night.
Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this week denounced Trump’s claims as “extremely dangerous.” Garland said the document Trump was referring to is standard policy that limits the use of military force. Consensual search of President Joe Biden’s home As part of an investigation into the Democratic Party’s handling of classified documents.
Trump faces dozens of felony charges. accuse someone of illegal hoarding Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing, accusing him of stealing classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which he took after leaving the White House in 2021, and then obstructing the FBI’s efforts to return them.
It is one of four Criminal case President Trump is trying to retake the White House, but outside of New York, where he is currently running hush money lawsuitHowever, it is not clear whether the other three will face trial before the election.
Trump has already been restricted in two other cases for making inflammatory comments that threatened the fairness of prosecutors.
In the New York case, Trump was fined and Threat of prison time This is because he repeatedly violated gag orders that prohibited him from speaking publicly about witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case.
He also Gag Orders in Federal Criminal Election Interference Cases in Washington. The order limits what he can say about witnesses, lawyers in the case and court officials, but the appeals court allowed him to speak about Smith, the special prosecutor who brought the case.
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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Washington.
