Trump and Jack Smith fight epic battle over Mar-a-Lago gag order request

Former President Donald Trump has been subjected to limited gag orders in a variety of criminal and civil cases, from Justice Juan Merchan in the hush money trial to Judge Tanya Chutkan in special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case and Justice Arthur Engoron in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit.

However, there is no formal gag order in Smith's Mar-a-Lago documents case, which has been delayed indefinitely by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee.

Smith last week requested from Cannon a partial gag order in that case, inspiring an angry rant from Trump on his Truth Social platform.

In his Friday request, Smith told Cannon that a limited gag order is needed in order to discourage Trump from making statements "that pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents."

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Smith's motion argues, "The Government's request is necessary because of several intentionally false and inflammatory statements recently made by Trump that distort the circumstances under which the Federal Bureau of Investigation planned and executed the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. Those statements create a grossly misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement agents — falsely suggesting that they were complicit in a plot to assassinate him — and expose those agents, some of whom will be witnesses at trial, to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment."

Attorney George Conway, a Never Trump conservative who is fundraising for President Joe Biden's reelection campaign, applauded Smith's gag order request during a CNN appearance — while Trump railed against the special counsel on Truth Social.

Trump posted, "I guess they're hoping they can silence me from telling the TRUTH like the Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge in New York City has done. Gag Orders have a very strong tendency to BACKFIRE, and if anybody should be GAGGED, it should be Deranged Jack, who was recently caught doing very bad things."

It remains to be seen what Cannon will decide in response to Smith's request.

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Law & Crime's Colin Kalmbacher notes, "Smith's effort to double up on his success with gag orders, if successful, would exact a hat trick of speech concessions on the ex-president at the height of the 2020 campaign season. Trump has, for his part, consistently sought to make political hay out of the four different indictments he faces in four different jurisdictions. Friday night's post on his homegrown social media website keeps up a theme of characterizing those criminal prosecutions as rogue actions of corrupt and partisan prosecutors."