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Trump classified documents prosecutor forced into groveling apology after Judge Aileen Cannon snapped in court: 'I don't appreciate your tone'
A top prosecutor who has taken on some of the nation's top political corruption cases dramatically apologized to Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon as Jack Smith's team battled over a proposed gag order Monday.
David Harbach, who led cases against former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell issued the stunning statement inside Cannon's courtroom Monday, in a case where Trump critics complain she has repeatedly ruled against the government.
'I just want to apologize about earlier,” Harbach said following a contentious courtroom exchange. “I didn’t mean to be unprofessional. I’m sorry about that.”
It came after he appeared to bristle at questions from Cannon, a U.S. district judge in Florida, in response to her questions about the prosecution's claims of threats to law enforcement personnel and Trump's language about the FBI that fed into the government's request to modify his terms of release.
'I don’t appreciate your tone,' the judge snapped at one point. The judge told him she would 'appreciate decorum at all times,' then warned, 'If you aren’t able to do that, I’m sure one of your colleagues can take up arguing this motion.'
Judge Aileen Cannon quizzed prosecutors and Donald Trump's lawyers about Trump's effort to force special counsel Jack Smith from the classified documents case
The Harvard Law-trained prosecutor once worked for former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime Trump target.
Prosecutors want to modify Trump's conditions of release to prohibit public attacks on law enforcement.
It comes after Trump accused the FBI of planning for his assassination based on documents spelling out use of force protocols during the raid at Mar-a-Lago that uncovered documents marked classified at his Florida home.
'Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!' Trump posted.
Trump also wrote in a fundraising email to supporters: 'Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.'
Prosecutors used those threats to justify their request for a gag, saying it created a 'grossly misleading impression' and accusing Trump of 'smearing' federal agents who executed the search.
'These deceptive and inflammatory claims expose the law enforcement professionals who are involved in this case to unjustified and unacceptable risks,' they wrote.
Prosecutors cited the threat to law enforcement of people who might be inspired to carry out physical attacks, prompting questions from Cannon about a linkage.
The clash came as Cannon heard more challenges to special counsel Jack Smith's authority on Monday – this time asking if there was any limit to the congressional funding that supports his office.
The Trump-appointed judge made the comment at a hearing in her Fort Pierce, Florida courtroom as Trump's lawyer argued that Smith's funding is contrary to the rules governing congressional appropriations.
It is one of multiple challenges Trump's team have challenged to the prosecutor leading the classified documents case against him. (Smith is also heading the January 6 case based in Washington, D.C. that is on hold while the Supreme Court considers Trump's immunity claims.)
The judge's comment came at a hearing where Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued that Smith's funding has been against laws governing funding from the get-go.
'Is there any cap to the funding?' Cannon asked him.
'There is no check on the scope of what's going on here,' Bove responded.
She also called the amounts the Justice Department spent on special counsels 'significant.'
Speaking for Smith's office, assistant special counsel James Pearce said it is the 'full commitment of the DOJ' that the special counsel's office has the funding to continue the prosecution.
Cannon asked Pearce to clarify if the budget for the case so far was $9 million.
'But when it's limitless, there is a separation of powers concern,' Cannon said.
Pearce said DOJ had $1 billion at its disposal even if the current funding stream got changed.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers were back in court after facing off in Cannon's courtroom on Friday, where she grilled defense lawyers and asked that they explain an 'ominous' argument after they challenged Smith's appointment.
Bove said the law was being applied in a way to grant AG Merrick Garland 'the power to appoint a shadow government.'
Cannon's willingness to grant Trump lawyers time to argue their motions in open court, while also hearing 'amicus' pleas by outside parties, has prompted outside criticism that she is allowing Trump's team to stall the case.
The government has allowed the use of special prosecutors in one form or another for more than a hundred years, and defense lawyers for Hunter Biden failed in a similar effort against the use of the authority by special counsel David Weiss.
Critics accuse Cannon of repeatedly ruling in Trump's favor and issuing rulings that show inexperience in a complex classified documents case
Trump's team argued special counsel Jack Smith's appointment was unconstitutional. On Monday they argued his funding violated appropriations statutes
David Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County and a Democrat, called it 'mind-boggling.'
Cannon postponed a May trial date and has not scheduled a new one, raising the likelihood Trump won't face trial in his classified documents case before the November elections.
He also will hear arguments in her courtroom Monday about Smith's renewed request for a gag order, after Trump accused FBI agents of having a plan to assassinate him based on a boilerplate passage from a document listing preparations for a search on Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has called the gags on his speech in other cases unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a narrow gag order in the D.C. case, and New York Jude Juan Merchan imposed one in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.