Threats against FBI agent

Special counsel says threats against FBI agent help justify gag order against Trump

From CNN's Holmes Lybrand

Prosecutors on the federal classified documents case, in stark and terse terms, put forward last week their case for a new gag order against Donald Trump in an effort to limit what he can say about agents involved in a search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022.

At 3 p.m. ET today, district Judge Aileen Cannon will hold a hearing for both parties to present their arguments over the proposed gag order, and tensions could quickly rise.

Citing Trump’s continued mischaracterization of the FBI’s policy in place around the use of deadly force during the search, prosecutors say Trump’s false claims that he narrowly escaped death from federal agents could lead to threats and harassment against them.

Trump was in New York when agents searched the Florida estate.

To support this concern, prosecutors, in a filing Friday, cited two examples of the type of threats and violence they believe could result from Trump’s comments.

“Shortly after the execution of the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, one of Trump’s supporters carried out an armed attack on an FBI office in the wake of Trump’s Truth Social statements regarding the search,” prosecutors wrote. “And just last week, a supporter of Trump called an FBI agent associated with the Hunter Biden case and claimed that, if Trump wins reelection, FBI agents will be thrown in jail; and if he does not win, the agents will be ‘hunt[ed] down’ and ‘slaughter[ed]’ in their own homes, after which ‘[w]e’re going to slaughter your whole f****** family.’”

Trump’s attorneys have called the proposed gag order a direct attack on Trump’s First Amendment rights and say prosecutors have not given an example of agents being harassed as a result of his recent comments.