DENIED: Trump-Appointed Judge Shoots Down Pro-Trump AGs Supporting Trump Over Gag Order
Judge Aileen Cannon shot down a gaggle of pro-Trump attorneys general who tried to file a brief supporting ex-President Donald Trump in opposing Special Counsel Jack Smith’s demand for a gag order.
In August of 2022, the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort home kicked off a stream of invective and threats against the FBI and eventually led to Trump’s arrest and arraignment on 37 counts related to violations of the Espionage Act. Critics have accused Judge Cannon — a Trump appointee — of slow-walking the case and making rulings adverse to the prosecution.
One of those rulings was Cannon’s denial of Smith’s motion demanding Trump be gagged from making statements like his false claims President Joe Biden tried to assassinate him with the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.
The basis for Trump’s claim is standard language in the raid’s operation order that said agents “may use deadly force only when necessary, that is, when the officer 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.”
Smith refiled his motion, and Trump’s team submitted their response opposing the order. On Sunday, pro-Trump state AGs and/or solicitors general from 25 states tried to file a friend of the court brief in support of Trump.
Among other things, the brief argues that Smith did not show that Trump’s explicit claim that Biden tried to assassinate him was a “mischaracterization”:
First, the special prosecutor has not shown that President Trump’s comments are a “mischaracterization” of the circumstances involving the execution of the search warrant at his private residence. Indeed, there were “[m]onths of disputes between the Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents over how best to try to recover classified documents from [President] Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.” Carol D. Leonnig et. al., Showdown before the raid: FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors argued over Trump, Wash. Post (Mar. 1, 2023), https://perma.cc/TKB2-H42P.
President Trump is justified in questioning the FBI’s decision to engage in the raid—questions that were raised by senior FBI officials as well. And President Trump is justified in highlighting that the raid invoked the FBI’s use-of-force policy rather than taking an approach that would not have needed such authorization.
The judge rejected the filing in a paperless order that reads:
PAPERLESS ORDER denying 623 Motion for Leave to File Brief as Amicus Curiae in Opposition to Special Counsel’s Motion to Modify Conditions of Release 592 . Signed by Judge Aileen M. Cannon on 6/17/2024. (jf01) (Entered: 06/17/2024)
Judge Cannon will hold a hearing on the gag order on Friday, June 21.
