Judge denies special counsel request to impose gag order on Trump over false claim about FBI raid

The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s classified documents case chided Special Counsel Jack Smith Tuesday, denying a gag order request to block Trump from falsely claiming FBI agents were prepared to kill him during the search of his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents in 2022.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Trump's Florida trial on his alleged mishandling of classified documents, cited a “lack of meaningful conferral” with the defense after the special counsel asked the judge to modify Trump’s conditions of release by ordering Trump to stop publicly lashing out.

Trump has claimed, including in recent fundraising appeals, that Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out” and agents were authorized to shoot him during the Mar-a-Lago raid; Trump was not in Florida at the time of the raid and the FBI has said that the authorization he has seized on is typical language limiting the use of force.

Trump's statements, prosecutors said, could pose “a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement” involved in the case.

Cannon did not dismiss the gag order request on the merits but said the special counsel’s effort to confer with the defense was “wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy” after it was filed on Friday leading up to Memorial Day weekend, the timing of which drew pushback from Trump's lawyers.

“[M]eaningful conferral is not a perfunctory exercise,” Cannon said on Tuesday. “Sufficient time needs to be afforded to permit reasonable evaluation of the requested relief by opposing counsel and to allow for adequate follow-up discussion as necessary about the specific factual and legal basis underlying the motion.”

Cannon also criticized what she said