Jack Smith wants Judge Cannon to gag Trump from statements 'to get law enforcement killed'

Special counsel Jack Smith has filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to tweak the conditions of former President Donald Trump's release in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, reported Lawfare's Anna Bower.

Specifically, he wants her to bar the former president from making statements that would endanger the lives of law enforcement officials involved in the case — which would be similar to the gag orders imposed on Trump in the federal January 6 case and the Manhattan hush money case.

The request appears to be primarily a response to Trump promoting conspiracy theories that the FBI was authorized by President Joe Biden to assassinate him, due to boilerplate language in the search warrant for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago that outlined the conditions under which they were authorized to use deadly force while executing the search.

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"Trump ... has distorted the standard inclusion of the policy limiting the use of deadly force by mischaracterizing it as a claim that the FBI 'WAS AUTHORIZED TO SHOOT ME,' was 'just itching to do the unthinkable,' and was 'locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger,"' wrote Smith's prosecutors. "These deceptive and inflammatory claims expose the law enforcement professionals who are involved in this case to unjustified and unacceptable risks: they invite the sort of threats and harassment that have occurred when other participants in legal proceedings against Trump have been targeted by his invective. Those risks have the potential to undermine the integrity of the proceedings as well as jeopardize the safety of law enforcement."

"The Court has previously underscored its 'independent obligation to protect the integrity of this judicial proceeding,'" the filing continued. "And the Court has the power and responsibility to 'impose additional or different conditions of release,' that are 'reasonably necessary to ... assure the safety of any other person and the community.'"

Put another way, posted former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi on social media, the special counsel is moving "to stop Trump from making false statements that are going to get law enforcement killed."

Cannon, a Trump appointee herself, has come under fire for how she has handled the documents case, and in particular for postponing the trial indefinitely to sort out a large number of pretrial disputes that she sat on for months with no action.