Will Trump face another gag order? His Mar-a-Lago judge isn’t convinced

The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s classified documents case snapped at prosecutors twice within 20 minutes during a hearing on whether to put a limited gag order on the former president for his false claims that have fueled threats against officials.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s office has repeatedly warned that Trump’s rhetoric and bogus statements about the FBI’s use of deadly force has opened the door for harassment against the officials prosecuting him.

During a tense hearing in Florida on Monday, federal prosecutor David Harbach argued that merely redacting officer names from court documents is not enough to protect them.

Harbach appeared to grow frustrated by District Judge Aileen Cannon’s insistence that he prove that Trump’s words were to blame.

“Mr Harbach, I don’t appreciate your tone,” Judge Cannon said from her Fort Pierce courtroom.

Trump is under two gag orders already – one in his hush money trial and another in hisfederal election interference case – after judges agreed that his social media posts and rhetoric threatened to compromise the proceedings and endanger witnesses, jurors, and court staff.

He also was under a gag order in his civil fraud case in New York.

But Judge Cannon isn’t convinced he needs another.

“Where do you see a call for violence?” she asked prosecutors on Monday.

“There still needs to be a factual connection between A and B,” she said.

Prosecutors are seeking a narrowly tailored order that would block the former president from making public comments that they fear will endanger the lives of FBI agents working on the case.

Judge Cannon isn’t expected to issue an immediate decision, and it’s unclear when she will.

The hearing on Monday was in the middle of a three-day streak of