Main: An aerial view of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 31, 2022 (AP Photo/Steve Helber/File). Right inset: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida).
The Justice Department under President Donald Trump is asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss, for a second time, an emergency request from current and former FBI agents seeking guidance about her restrictions on the Mar-a-Lago investigation.
In a 20-page motion to dismiss, Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter and Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, accused the agents of relying on “nothing more but conjecture, fear-mongering, and an apparent motive to delay.”
Cannon previously removed the agents’ first clarification request from the docket, finding that it failed to comply with a local court rule. The agents and their lawyers filed a revised version last week.
The FBI personnel, whom their attorneys describe as “experts in the handling of classified information,” again said they want to testify before the DOJ’s “grand conspiracy” investigation about material in former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Mar-a-Lago. At the same time, they say they need assurances that testifying would not violate Cannon’s order prohibiting disclosure of Volume II.
The Trump-appointed judge permanently barred public access to Smith’s report after dismissing the indictment against then-presidential candidate Trump. Cannon concluded that Smith’s actions as a “private citizen” were invalid because his appointment as special counsel was unlawful.
Smith, while testifying publicly, did not discuss Volume II, citing Cannon’s restrictions.
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The FBI agents—many of whom were “abruptly and unlawfully fired” by FBI Director Kash Patel after returning from the Olympic Games—say they also fear “court-imposed sanctions” and possible contempt findings if Cannon does not explain precisely what her order permits.
The DOJ contends that the witnesses’ concern that they may be questioned about Volume II is merely “fear-mongering” over the “possibility or risk of future harm.” Prosecutors argue that such hypothetical concerns do not establish the legal standing required for the motion.
“[I]n the guise of seeking clarification, the Witnesses actually seek to chip away at this Court’s straightforward prohibition against the disclosure of Volume II and the improperly derived information and conclusions contained in the so-called Special Counsel Report,” the DOJ wrote, describing Smith’s matter as an “unlawful and since dismissed prosecution.”
The filing further argued that the agents want to prevent—or effectively control—the questions a grand jury may ask and expose details of proceedings that are legally protected. “Those asks alone are extraordinary,” the DOJ said.
Although the agents maintain that they “cannot rely on DOJ’s assertions” about the scope of Cannon’s order, the department said the judge should not permit “free sneak previews” or negotiations over what prosecutors and grand jurors can ask the witnesses.
The post Trump DOJ calls on Judge Cannon to throw Mar-a-Lago FBI agents’ ‘fear-mongering’ out of her court first appeared on Law & Crime.
