Judge declines request to gag Trump in a classified documents case

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday denied a government request to legally gag former President Donald Trump from criticizing law enforcement personnel. The Justice Department failed to meaningfully confer with Trump’s lawyers before filing the motion, Cannon said. She also dismissed a request by Trump’s lawyers, who had asked she hold in contempt the prosecutors who crafted the government’s request for failing to confer with the opposing counsel.

Why did the government want the gag order? The Justice Department’s filing alleged that Trump made inflammatory claims about the FBI’s handling of a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last year. The search warrant pertained to Trump’s alleged retention and disclosure of classified documents stored at the estate.

What did Trump have to say? In addition to criticizing prosecutors’ failure to confer with his attorneys about the motion meaningfully, Trump said the government’s requested order would infringe on his right to free speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of free speech. He also said that the government had failed to properly show any harm to law enforcement personnel because of his speech.