Judge Cannon Hammers Smith Prosecutor During Trial

We all knew the classified documents courtroom would be contentious, but it started much earlier than anyone could have anticipated.

Jack Smith appears to have told his prosecutors to lean into Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Donald Trump.

They did, and Cannon leaned right back.

Won’t Tolerate It

Smith’s team is looking to impose more restrictions on Trump’s gag order, likely triggered by Thursday’s debate.

As the prosecutors were making their argument, prosecutor David Harbach got a bit snippy with Judge Cannon when she inquired about the exact alleged attacks by Trump that would call for such restrictions.

To this point, prosecutors have gotten whatever they wanted from judges regarding gag orders, so I am sure Smith’s team was surprised when they got some resistance to actually show proof of their claims.

Cannon rebuked Harbach, stating, “I don’t appreciate your tone.”

She then told him, “If you aren’t able to do that, I’m sure one of your colleagues can take up arguing this motion.”

Harbach wised up and apologized at the end of the session, telling Cannon, “I didn’t mean to be unprofessional. I’m sorry about that.”

Smith is trying to block Trump from being able to discuss the FBI, citing that he has put agents’ lives in danger with his rhetoric after Trump posted about deadly force being authorized during the raid on Mar-a-Lago.

This is standard language for any raid, but even I was surprised this was not addressed before the raid, as well as being shocked by the need to raid Mar-a-Lago at all.

On Trump’s comments, prosecutors argued, “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.”

Even so, Cannon wanted proof that Trump’s comments have put agents at risk, giving prosecutors until Wednesday to prove their argument in her courtroom.

Her deadline leads me to believe that Cannon plans on releasing a decision immediately on the matter due to the debate being on Thursday night.