(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Judge Cannon rejects Smith's request for gag order against Trump in classified documents case [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-05-28 CNN is reporting that Federal Judge Aileen Cannon has rejected special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order barring Donald Trump from making inflammatory comments about law enforcement officers related to his classified documents case. Trump’s campaign has falsely calimed that the FBI was authorized to assassinate Trump during the Aug. 12, 2022 search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home. Cannon wrote that prosecutors’ request was “wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy.” Her decision came unusually quickly given all the delays in considering key motions to bring the case to trial. Just hours earlier, Law&Crime reported that Trump lawyers on Memorial Day demanded that Cannon take the prosecution to task for their filing. Law&Crime wrote: While Cannon’s order on Tuesday technically amounted to a draw, since the judge denied both motions without prejudice (meaning they may be brought again), she scolded Smith’s team in no uncertain terms for poor lawyering. “[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.” “This is so even when a party ‘assume[s]’ the opposing party will oppose the proposed motion, and it applies with additional force when the relief sought — at issue for the first time in this proceeding and raised in a procedurally distinct manner than in cited cases — implicates substantive and/or Constitutional questions,” she added. ABC News reported that Trump’s lawyers, in a filing on Memorial Day, argued that prosecutors had violated a rule which says that both parties must "meet and confer" before fling motions so the court and the parties' time is used efficiently. In their filing, Trump's lawyers asked Cannon to strike the special counsel's request and impose sanctions on any prosecutors involved in filing their motion. Cannon agreed with Trump's lawyers that Smith should not have filed such a motion without meaningfully conferring with the defense, as the local rules require. Cannon said a failure to comply with those requirements may result in sanctions. Apparently, Trump’s lead defense attorney was doing double duty over the holiday weekend in responding to Smith’s motion as well as preparing for his closing statement Tuesday in Trump’s election interference/hush money criminal case in a Manhattan courtroom. ABC News wrote: Trump's lead defense attorney Todd Blanche had asked the special counsel to wait until Monday to meet and confer – something the special counsel's office declined to do because they said Trump had created a situation with his public comments that couldn't wait the weekend to file. “As we also tried to explain earlier, our judgment was that the situation your client has created necessitated a prompt request for relief that could not wait the weekend to file. We understand your position and represented to the court that you do not believe the government has engaged in adequate conferral here," special counsel prosecutor David Harbach wrote in an email to Trump's lawyers. Smith had filed a motion late Friday calling on Cannon to impose a gag order on Trump to prevent him from speaking about the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case in a way that could endanger FBI agents and other law enforcement officials. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/28/2243222/-Judge-Cannon-rejects-Smith-s-request-for-gag-order-against-Trump-in-classified-documents-case?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/