Special counsel Jack Smith asked a federal judge on Friday to stop former President Donald Trump from characterizing the FBI's 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago as a threat to him and his family, arguing that the claims put law enforcement in endanger.
In the motion filed with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the classified documents case in Florida, Smith requested that Trump be barred from making statements that “pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement officers serving participate in the investigation and prosecution of this case.” Trump claimed in a campaign call that FBI agents were “locked and loaded, ready to take me out and endanger my family.”
Court documents this week revealed that the FBI used its standard use of force policy, which prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger to the poses death or serious danger. bodily harm to the officer or to any other person.”
“These misleading and inflammatory claims expose the law enforcement professionals involved in this case to unwarranted and unacceptable risk,” Smith's filing reads.
The FBI has said such contingencies are routine and that similar language was included in an operational plan that accompanied a subsequent search of President Biden's properties in Delaware.
NEW REVELATION IN FLORIDA DOCUMENT PROCESS PUTS TRUMP ON ATTACK AGAINST 'REJECTED' SPECIAL COUNCIL
Special Counsel Jack Smith filed court papers Friday requesting that former President Trump be barred from speaking publicly about his classified documents case in a way that could endanger law enforcement officials. (Getty Images)
The Justice Department says the policy is routine and intended to limit rather than encourage the use of force during searches. Prosecutors noted that the search of the Florida property was deliberately conducted while Trump and his family were out of state and was coordinated in advance with the U.S. Secret Service. Still, the revelation that the dozens of officers sent to search the house were prepared for possible violence was shocking to Trump supporters, who say the two incidents are not comparable since the Justice Department is part of Biden's own administration.
Smith's filing cites Trump's claim that the FBI was “authorized to shoot me” and was “simply eager to do the unthinkable.”
“They invite the kinds of threats and intimidation that have occurred when other participants in legal proceedings against Trump have been the target of his invective,” Smith wrote. “These risks could undermine the integrity of the proceedings and compromise the safety of law enforcement.”
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An aerial view of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen on August 10, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
The operational plan was revealed when Trump's legal team filed a motion requesting that documents related to the raid be made public. Smith says Trump's lawyers left out a key word “merely” in their motion earlier this week that pushed Trump to make the FBI allegations.
“Although Trump included the warrant and the Operations Form as attachments to his motion, the motion misquoted the Operations Form by omitting the crucial word “only” before “when necessary” without any apostrophes reflecting the omission. The motion also omitted language explaining that Deadly force is necessary only “when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another person. “
“These statements create a grossly misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement officers – falsely implying that they were complicit in a plot to kill him – and expose these officers, some of whom will be witnesses at trial, exposed to the risk of threats, violence and intimidation,” the prosecutor added.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said that “repeated attempts to silence President Trump during the presidential campaign are blatant attempts to interfere in the election.”
Trump is accused of keeping secret documents at his estate that he took with him after leaving the White House in 2021 and then obstructing the administration's efforts to retrieve them. FBI agents seized 33 boxes of documents during the raid.
The investigation is overseen by Smith, who appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith has charged Trump with 40 crimes, including violating the Espionage Act, making false statements to investigators and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and labeled the case an “election inference scam” promoted by the Biden administration and “deranged Jack Smith.”
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FILE – A police officer speaks with a woman outside former President Donald Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago following the FBI search, in Palm Beach, Florida, August 8, 2022. (REUTERS/Marco Bello)
Earlier this month, Trump called for Smith's arrest after prosecutors handling the 45th president's case admitted that the seized documents were no longer in their original order and order.
Prosecutors admitted in a court filing that “there are some boxes where the order of the items in that box is not the same as in the associated scans.” Prosecutors had previously told the court that the documents were “in their original, intact form when seized.”
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Emma Colton and David Spunt of Fox News, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
