Dozens of Republican state attorneys general have submitted an amicus brief in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, asking the court to deny Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order. The group of 24 attorneys called Smith’s request “presumptively unconstitutional”.
In April while his hush-money criminal trial in Manhattan was underway, Trump was handed a $9,000 fine by Judge Juan Merchan for contempt of court after the former president repeatedly violated a gag order. When he handed Trump the fine, Merchan warned that he could face jail time if he continued to violate the gag order.
Donald Trump Jr. has accused Smith of tampering with evidence relating to the case after it was revealed that the order of the documents had changed since they were seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort by the FBI in 2022. Following the revelation, the trial date was postponed indefinitely by Judge Aileen Cannon.
The filed amicus brief argued that candidates’ freedoms to discuss key issues of the day formed the foundation of fair elections. It also claimed that attempts to silence a candidate would harm voters and deny them access to valuable information.
The brief expressed its concerns that “fundamental” First Amendment rights are violated when one candidate’s “agents” seek a court order to silence debate on issues central to an election campaign. The group of state prosecutors, which was led by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, stressed that all branches of government should be careful about censoring political speech on key issues, especially leading up to a presidential election.
Smith’s motion argued that Trump had made statements that posed a significant danger to law enforcement involved in the case. The special counsel’s concerns relate to Trump’s claims that FBI agents were “locked & loaded” when they raided his property. Trump suggested that there was a plot between the FBI and the White House to assassinate him. Prosecutors slated the “grossly misleading claims” by Trump, which relate to a standard boilerplate policy used by the FBI in such operations that seeks to minimize the use of deadly force in emergency scenarios.
