Trump Lawyers Say IRS Judge Timed Sanctions to Silence Todd Blanche as Cannon Limits Jack Smith in Mar-a-Lago Case

As former special counsel Jack Smith prepared for tightly constrained testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his criminal investigations into Donald Trump, the president’s lawyers urged an appeals court to criticize a judge for restricting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s comments.

In a nearly 60-page filing, attorneys representing Trump, his two oldest sons, the Trump Organization and two lawyers who brought the president’s lawsuit against the IRS accused U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of imposing “extraordinary, unjust” sanctions. They argued that Williams “improperly treated the filing of the Complaint as proof of collusion and bad faith[.]”

In July, Williams left Trump and his legal team potentially responsible for the legal fees of outside amici curiae who challenged what they described as a “non-adversarial” and “collusive” lawsuit. She also referred Trump’s lead attorney, Alejandro Brito, to the Florida Bar as a disciplinary measure.

The amici included 35 former federal judges as well as former IRS and Treasury officials. They raised concerns after Trump sought to voluntarily dismiss the case, then quickly announced a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and “settlement” that also shielded him and his family from past tax investigations.

Instead of centering its appeal on Williams’ conclusion that the plaintiffs had pursued a multibillion-dollar case involving claims they “knew, or should have known, were time-barred,” Trump’s filing with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focused heavily on what it called an “utterly unprecedented restriction on speech.” That provision barred “improper references to the ‘settlement agreement,’” which Williams characterized as a “sham.”

The filing further alleged that Williams deliberately scheduled her ruling to “inflict political damage on the President” by limiting what Blanche, then Trump’s nominee, could say.

“This timing was no accident: two days before Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing, the court issued its opinion littered with legal, factual, and citation errors condemning conduct under Senate review, directed that its accusations be sent to his disciplinary authorities, and purported to dictate what he could tell Senators about the case,” the brief stated. “An Article III judge thus interfered with the Article II confirmation process, supplying a judicial condemnation of the nominee’s conduct, while purporting to restrict his ability to respond.”

On Tuesday, Smith returned to Capitol Hill but remained prohibited from discussing Volume II of his report. That section covers his investigation into Trump’s alleged willful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and an alleged conspiracy to obstruct their return.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s permanent injunction blocking Volume II remains backed by Trump personally, former co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, and the Trump Justice Department.

On appeal, First Amendment organizations and Senate Democrats have submitted briefs seeking to make the Mar-a-Lago report public.

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The senators argued that Cannon’s injunction failed to account for the “lack of adversity” between Trump as a former criminal defendant and Trump as head of the executive branch. They also said the order impaired Congress’ ability to fully evaluate FBI Director Kash Patel.

“[A]ccording to public reports, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Mr. Patel to testify before a grand jury investigating President Trump’s retention of classified materials after leaving office and granted Mr. Patel immunity to facilitate his testimony in November 2022 after Mr. Patel invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions,” Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats wrote in a Jan. 29, 2025, letter to then-Acting Attorney General James McHenry explaining their interest in Volume II.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the committee’s ranking member, signed the brief. At the start of Smith’s latest hearing, Durbin criticized Cannon by name, calling her a “MAGA loyalist.”

“It is sad to see my colleagues contort themselves to support President Trump’s lies. I expect that will continue today because of the limits placed on Mr. Smith’s ability to testify by MAGA loyalist Judge Aileen Cannon and the Trump Administration,” Durbin said. “Judge Cannon has enjoined the release of Volume II of the Special Counsel report on the classified documents investigation, and Mr. Smith himself is enjoined from providing information about that investigation unless the Justice Department has made that information public.”

“There was nothing untoward about Special Counsel Smith and his fellow prosecutors conducting this investigation,” Durbin added.

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, cited a “careful study” when dismissing Trump’s indictment and ruling that Smith had been unlawfully appointed as special counsel.

About a year and a half later, Cannon sharply criticized Smith’s “brazen” decision to issue the report in the first place.

Also Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit rejected a request by Trump and the Justice Department to pause Williams’ sanctions order while the appeal proceeds. The panel said Trump and his lawyers “have not persuaded us to construe the sanction more broadly and have not made a strong showing that they will prevail on their First Amendment challenges.”

“They do not cite any authorities suggesting that a speech-related prohibition imposed as a penalty for conduct determined to be sanctionable violates the First Amendment. Indeed, in judicial proceedings, ‘whatever right to ‘free speech’ an attorney has is extremely circumscribed,’” the order said.

The post Trump lawyers accuse IRS judge of timing sanctions to muzzle Todd Blanche as Cannon’s order silences Jack Smith on Mar-a-Lago first appeared on Law & Crime.