Former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Tuesday that U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon was correct to deny the government's request to place a gag order on former President Donald Trump in his classified documents case in Florida.
In denying the request Tuesday, Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, admonished Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith and said future failure on his part to comply with her requirements in the case could result in sanctions. At issue was a Friday night request – ahead of the holiday weekend – made by Smith's team that Cannon impose the gag order to prevent Trump from making incendiary claims about law enforcement personnel.
Trump and his political campaign issued statements that said, "Biden's DOJ" was authorized to shoot him in reference to the FBI search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate that had specific authorization to use deadly force if necessary.
"I would not have granted the gag order because I don't believe in gag orders," Napolitano told "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE." "The defendant has the right to say what he wants about the FBI. [Trump] said the FBI was thinking of assassinating me. That's a stretch. The FBI doesn't assassinate people in the United States. We'll talk about what happens outside the United States at another time.
"But the standard form for these search warrants says you can use deadly force, if necessary, if you're resisted by deadly force. That was not written for [Trump]. That's the pre-printed part of the form. The president is unfamiliar with this, so he wanted to make negative comments about the FBI. Jack Smith said he wanted to silence him. The judge said, I'm not silencing him, I'm not silencing him."
Cannon criticized Smith for violating court rules for not conferring with Trump's legal team before asking for the gag order.
"Sometimes the prosecutors think that they are better than the rest of us and think that they don't have to obey the rules that the rest of us do," Napolitano said. "I would have thrown this out as well. Donald Trump has the right to say whatever he wants to say about the FBI."
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