Jack Smith ‘Exposes’ Donald Trump in New Court Filing—Legal Analyst

Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith‘s latest court filing “exposes the dangerous, incendiary, violence-inducing lies of Donald Trump,” legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Saturday.

The search warrant used in the 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was recently unsealed in relation to his classified documents criminal case in Florida. The raid led to the search and seizure of hundreds of documents containing classified information, which resulted in dozens of felony counts against the former president. He is accused of illegally keeping classified documents that he took with him after leaving the White House in 2021 and then obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any wrongdoing.

On Tuesday, the former president posted misleading claims about the warrant’s wording on his Truth Social account, alleging that the DOJ “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.” In addition, a Trump campaign email that was recently sent to supporters claimed that FBI agents were “authorized to shoot” Trump, claiming President Joe Biden was “locked & loaded and ready to take me [Trump] out.”

However, the FBI said in a statement that the wording of the warrant was standard and the phrase “deadly force” was also included when agents searched Biden’s Delaware home for classified materials.

“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter,” the agency’s statement said.

Discussing Trump’s claim about the search warrant, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference on Thursday that the “allegation is false and it is extremely dangerous,” reiterating that the document in question is standard policy.

In a Saturday video on his YouTube channel, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent critic of the former president, said, “A fourth judge is now considering the need to gag Donald Trump to keep him from endangering the folks who are involved in the endeavor of trying to hold him accountable for his crimes.”

Trump is currently under a gag order in his criminal hush money trial in New York and faces a limited one in his federal election interference case, which is also led by Smith. Last year, Trump was under a gag order in his New York civil fraud trial.

Newsweek has reached out to Kirschner and Trump’s spokesperson for comment via email on Sunday.

In response to Trump’s assassination claims, Smith filed a motion on Friday for Judge Aileen Cannon to bar Trump from making “statements that pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger” to law enforcement agents involved in the case.

The motion says Trump’s inaccurate comments make “a grossly misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement agents—falsely suggesting that they were complicit in a plot to assassinate him—and expose those agents, some of whom will be witnesses at trial, to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment.”

Kirschner said Smith’s latest filing “exposes the dangerous, incendiary, violence-inducing lies of Donald Trump.” He added that it “demands that the judge…do something about it.”

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020 and is overseeing the classified documents case, has faced criticism for making several decisions that some say have favored the former president. Earlier this month, Cannon indefinitely suspended the start of the trial while other legal disputes related to the case are being settled.

Several legal analysts support Smith’s filing, suggesting it will put Cannon in a difficult position. If she doesn’t grant the gag order, Smith could appeal to a higher court, citing potential bias.

“Smart move by Smith as Judge Cannon won’t be likely to grant the gag order, will show her patent bias, and Smith can then appeal to the 11th Circuit,” former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.

In an emailed statement to Newsweek on Friday, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said the motion was evidence that “Crooked Joe Biden and his Hacks and Thugs are obsessed with trying to deprive President Trump and all American voters of their First Amendment rights.”

He added: “Repeated attempts to silence President Trump during the presidential campaign are blatant attempts to interfere in the election. They are last-ditch efforts of desperate Democrat Radicals running a losing campaign for a failed president.”

Update 5/26/24, 6:02 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.