'I don't appreciate your tone': Judge in Trump documents case reprimands prosecutor

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s classified documents case reprimanded a prosecutor from special counsel Jack Smith’s office at a hearing Monday on a proposed gag order for the former president.

“I don’t appreciate your tone,” U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said when attorney David Harbach appeared to get exasperated as she questioned the need to modify Trump’s conditions of release. Smith’s office has challenged those conditions over Trump’s false claims that FBI agents wereprepared to kill him while they were executing a 2022 search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The tense exchange at a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce came as attorney Harbach was arguing that Cannon should bar Trump from making more inflammatory statements about FBI agents who worked on the investigation.

Cannon had noted that the agents’ names were redacted in court filings, while Harbach was pointing out the agents were doxxed shortly after the search. Cannon told Harbach that his behavior was unprofessional and warned she would require someone else to make his arguments if he did not correct his behavior.

Harbach later apologized. “I didn’t mean to be unprofessional,” he said.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche urged Cannon to deny the prosecution’s request, arguing that Trump’s comments cited by government attorneys were directed at President Joe Biden and not the FBI.

“If you look at the actual posts, there’s no threats to FBI agents,” Blanche said. “The attacks are against Joe Biden.”

One of Trump’s Truth Social posts last month falsely claimed that "Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.”

Trump’s statements last month were