Judge Cannon Blasts Democrat Prosecutor Jack Smith For Unprofessionalism in Seeking Gag Orders on Trump

Jack Smith, in a nakedly political move, demanded that Judge Cannon hit Trump with a gag order for... tweeting that FBI agents were permitted to shoot to kill in executing the search warrant.

That is true. They were so authorized. It's true that this is a routine boilerplate instruction, and that Trump wasn't home, but it is true that they had permission to shoot to kill if they encountered resistance in executing the warrant.

Trump's statements are protected first amendment speech, even if his claims are contentious. In no world does a prosecutor have any business seeking a gag order to stop a presidential candidate from making politically-charged claims.

Except when the prosecutor is just a campaign worker for Biden 2024.

Politico whines about Judge Cannon, yet again:

The judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents at his Florida home has again chided special counsel Jack Smith's team for its tactics -- this time over a request for an order preventing Trump from repeating baseless claims that FBI agents carrying out a search at Mar-a-Lago last year were authorized to kill him.

Even if these claims are "baseless" -- and they're not; they're true (if misleading) -- what business is it of a court or prosecutor to act as a Twitter Content Moderator regarding Trump's claims?

Will Jack Smith likewise ask for gag orders on Biden for repeating the "9% interest" lie? Why not? He has as much authority to seek a gag order about that as about Trump's claim.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon turned down the gag order request Tuesday as she delivered another sharp warning to prosecutors that they need to make more concerted efforts at dialogue with Trump's counsel before bringing disputes to the court.

"The Court finds the Special Counsel's pro forma 'conferral' [with the defense] to be B? wrote Cannon, a Trump appointee. "It should go without saying that meaningful conferral is not a perfunctory exercise."

Cannon didn't rule out granting the request in the future, but she said prosecutors would need to to further engage with Trump's side over the issue before she will take it up again. She also questioned Smith's claim of urgency to file the gag order request, noting that prosecutors filed it on a "non-emergency" basis. It was submitted on the Friday evening before the Memorial Day weekend, leading Trump lawyers to complain that they were being rushed into responding.

So they lied.

In addition, Cannon appeared to fault Smith's attorneys for skewing how they described the stance that Trump's lawyers had taken on the proposed gag order. The judge suggested prosecutors had relegated Trump's response to "editorialized footnotes," rather than just reciting it neutrally to the court. She directed both sides to provide her with more details in the future on their attempts to work out such disputes and to do so "in objective terms."

While the judge seemed piqued by the prosecutors' actions, she turned down a request from Trump's defense to impose sanctions on the prosecution for allegedly defying court rules and her previous orders. However, Cannon said that was possible if her rulings aren't obeyed.

"Failure to comply with these requirements may result in sanctions," the judge wrote in the brief order posted to the south Florida federal court's online docket Tuesday morning.

...

Prosecutors have indicated they needed to move quickly with the gag request because of a series of inflammatory public statements by Trump claiming that FBI officials had given the OK to kill him during the court-ordered raid at Mar-a-Lago in May 2022. The claim stems from the inclusion of a policy on use of deadly force included in the operations plan given to agents prior to the search.

They're claiming that Trump's remarks may endanger law enforcement officials... um, what authority does a prosecutor have to stop speech he doesn't like?

His only authority over Trump's speech (debatedly!) is if Trump's speech interferes with the administration of justice in this one case -- he does not have limitless authority to gag Trump whenever Trump is disputing Democrat/Government Party dogmas.

Will he similarly seek a gag order on Cori Bush to stop lying about the death of Michael Brown -- an absolute lie that definitely puts cops' lives in danger?

Nah, of course not.

But we have to protect those dear, dear FBI agents from mere reputational damage.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:14 PM

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