Judge Denies Gag Order Request in Trump Classified Docs Case

US District Judge Aileen Cannon rejected prosecutors' request to bar former President Donald Trump from making public statements about his classified documents case. The judge ruled that the defense did not have enough time to discuss the request. Trump recently claimed FBI agents were authorized to use deadly force during the Mar-a-Lago raid.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case in Florida on Tuesday denied prosecutors' request to bar the former president from making public statements that could endanger law enforcement agents participating in the prosecution.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon said in her order that prosecutors didn't give defense lawyers adequate time to discuss the request before it was filed Friday evening. She denied the request without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could file it again.

The request followed a distorted claim by Trump last week that the FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022 were “authorised to shoot me” and were “locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.” The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was referring to the disclosure in a court document that the FBI, during the search, followed a standard use-of-force policy that prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer conducting the search 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.”