Judge Cannon sets deadline for Trump as special counsel Jack Smith insists gag order is needed to protect law enforcement, trial witnesses

Donald Trump (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File), Judge Aileen M. Cannon (U.S. Senate via AP)

In a Sunday order, the judge in the Mar-a-Lago case set a mid-June deadline for former President Donald Trump to oppose the special counsel’s push for a gag order , which Jack Smith insists is necessary to protect law enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered up a Trump team response by June 14 on the issue of Smith’s motion to modify his bond conditions.

The special counsel first raised the issue on Friday night of Memorial Day weekend, saying that Trump’s Truth Social posts claiming the DOJ authorized “deadly (lethal) force” when searching Mar-a-Lago amounted to a “dangerous campaign to smear law enforcement” and put potential federal witnesses at risk.

“Those statements create a grossly misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement agents—falsely suggesting that they were complicit in a plot to assassinate him—and expose those agents, some of whom will be witnesses at trial, to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment,” Smith and his team said.

After Trump’s defense lawyers complained that the special counsel rushed to file the motion while doing little more than emailing on that Friday evening and night, Cannon agreed that Smith had not conferred with the defense in a “meaningful” way and the judge scolded the prosecution .

“[T]he Court finds the Special Counsel’s pro forma ‘conferral’ to be wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy,” Cannon wrote. “It should go without saying that meaningful conferral is not a perfunctory exercise. 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.”

The judge responded by throwing out both Smith’s motion and a Trump motion asking Cannon to “make civil contempt findings” and issue sanctions, but the dismissals were without prejudice, so it was clear this issue would come up again.

Last Friday, Smith renewed his Trump bond conditions modification bid by confirming that both sides had “conferred in a good-faith effort to resolve the issues raised in the motion, but were unable to do so.”

“President Trump opposes the motion,” the filing said, noting that the defense is calling the gag attempt “a blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of President Trump and the American People, which would in effect allow President Trump’s political opponent to regulate his campaign communications to voters across the country.”

Judging by the Sunday order setting deadlines for both Trump and the prosecution, the renewed filing from Smith did not run afoul of Cannon’s rules.

Trump “shall,” on or before June 14, respond with his opposition and Smith “shall” reply with support on or before June 21, the court docket shows.

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