Prosecutors seek to gag Trump over remarks in classified documents case

Federal prosecutors have requested that the judge overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump bar him from making public statements that pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents involved in the case. This request follows a false claim by Trump that FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022 were "authorized to shoot me" and were "locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger."

Prosecutors argue that these statements create a misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement officers, potentially endangering those agents, some of whom will be witnesses at trial. The FBI's standard use-of-force policy prohibits the use of deadly force except when an officer reasonably believes that the subject poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury. Defense lawyers have objected to the government's motion, arguing that such statements do not restrict legitimate speech.