Special counsel again asks for modified release conditions for Trump in classified documents case

Special counsel Jack Smith on Friday asked the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case in Florida to bar him from making statements that endanger law enforcement.

The filing marks the second motion from Smith in days urging U.S. District Judge Judge Aileen Cannon to modify Trump's conditions of release in the case. And like the motion before, Friday's motion was based on Trump's false claims about FBI agents being prepared to kill him during the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search for classified documents.

"Trump’s repeated mischaracterization of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to kill him, his family, and Secret Service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings," Smith said in the filing.

Trump's campaign had claimed in a fundraising email that President Joe Biden was "locked & loaded ready to take me out," comments that echoed similar statements by the former president about FBI agents.

Trump was not in Florida at the time of the raid, and the FBI has said the authorization he apparently referenced is typical language limiting the use of force.

The policy prohibits deadly force except for “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," Friday's motion explained.

"Trump, however, has grossly distorted these standard practices by mischaracterizing them as a plan to kill him, his family, and U.S. Secret Service agents," Smith said in the motion. "Those deceptive and inflammatory assertions irresponsibly put a target on the backs of the FBI