Judge considers gag order for Trump after his comments about FBI's Mar-a-Lago search

FORT PIERCE — The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case is considering barring the former president from making statements that prosecutors say could endanger the lives of FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for a limited gag order on Monday in response to Trump’s claims that agents who searched his Palm Beach home for classified documents were prepared to kill him. Trump wrote in a fundraising email that the armed officers were “locked & loaded, ready to take me out & put my family in danger," despite the fact that agents carried out the search while he and his family were out of the state.

“If there’s any question about who authored it, the president signed it,” prosecutor David Harbach said Monday. “Forgive me, the former president.”

In the same email, Trump said the agents were "just itching to do the unthinkable." His comments refer to standard text in FBI policy that allows agents to use deadly force in the face of "imminent danger of death or serious physical injury.”

Who is Aileen Cannon? What to know about the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the classified documents case

Trump attorney Todd Blanche said the statements were frustrated campaign speech, protected by the First Amendment and directed not at law enforcement but at President Joe Biden. He added that none of the examples cited in prosecutors’ motion contained any direct threats or calls for violence.

Harbach called Trump's comments “way over the line” and “flagrantly false.” He described a call-and-response relationship between Trump and his followers, pointing to an attempted attack on an FBI office in Ohio three days after the Mar-a-Lago search.

Trump attorney Emil Bove urged Cannon on Monday to question Jack Smith’s motives for seeking a gag order on Trump ahead of his televised debate with Biden. Smith and his team of special prosecutors maintain that they operate independently from the Biden administration.

Cannon did not immediately rule on the issue Monday. She expressed some confusion over what threat Trump’s statements pose given that the names of the agents have been redacted from court filings. Harbach told her that some of the names have been made public anyway.

Monday Trump hearing is day two of three at Fort Pierce federal courthouse

Monday’s hearing was the latest in a series that began Friday and will continue Tuesday. The back-to-back proceedings concern a slate of other unresolved pretrial issues, including a defense motion to exclude evidence seized by the FBI during the Mar-a-Lago search, as well as another motion to dismiss the charges.

Some Trump critics and legal analysts have questioned Cannon's willingness to hear defense arguments which prosecutors say are "meritless." The New York Times reported Thursday that two judges — including the chief federal judge in the Southern District of Florida — urged Cannon to step down from the case after she was randomly assigned to oversee it. Cannon, who Trump appointed to the federal bench in January 2020, declined to do so.

She has been scrutinized over her handling of the case, both for taking months to issue rulings and for entertaining dubious legal claims — all of which make a trial before the presidential election in November unlikely.

Cannon has not hinted at a potential trial date since she postponed it in May. Prosecutors have suggested that it could begin in early July, while Trump’s lawyers have argued it should start no earlier than August. The Republican National Convention is scheduled for July 15-18 in Milwaukee.

Accused of hoarding classified documents and thwarting the government's efforts to retrieve them, Trump and his aides Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump classified documents case: Judge considers gag order