Main: An aerial view of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 31, 2022 (AP Photo/Steve Helber/File). Right inset: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida).
A group of current and former FBI agents who are “experts in the handling of classified information” and don’t want to violate Judge Aileen Cannon’s orders are once again asking the Mar-a-Lago jurist for some “necessary” clarifying relief.
Having certified this time that their lawyers conferred with “all parties relevant to this motion,” the agents asked Cannon to confirm they can testify “about the non-public information covered by the Order to the grand jury,” can give voluntary interviews to the DOJ “with counsel present,” can “speak publicly about what they discussed,” and can consult with their lawyers about the substance of Volume II of onetime special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the investigation into alleged mishandling of classified documents.
The attorneys emphasized that “immunity” for the agents wouldn’t protect them from “court-imposed sanctions” for which they “could be held in contempt,” given Cannon’s order.
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“A grant of immunity does nothing to resolve this dilemma,” the filing said.
The Donald Trump-appointed judge’s dismissal of the classified documents case continues to be a source of confusion for feds who want to testify in the DOJ’s “grand conspiracy” probe about the contents of Volume II.
Cannon permanently buried Smith’s report on the probe after she tossed then-candidate Trump’s indictment, reasoning that all of “private citizen” Smith’s acts were invalidated as a consequence of an unlawful appointment.
The judge blocked the DOJ from releasing Volume II, barred disclosures of its contents, and criticized Smith’s production of the Mar-a-Lago report as a “brazen” violation of at least the spirit of her order.
While it may be that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear an appeal to reverse Cannon’s injunction as soon as November, that’s still up in the air. The agents — many of whom were “abruptly and unlawfully fired” by FBI Director Kash Patel after his return from the Olympic Games — want assurances that they won’t face consequences.
“Relief from this Court is necessary. DOJ’s bare assertion that its work ‘does not disturb’ the Order is simply insufficient. DOJ has not only provided an apparently contradictory opinion on this issue as it relates to the Special Counsel’s testimony, but it has refused to simply provide a copy of that opinion to Clients prior to their testimony,” court documents said, noting that Jack Smith stayed radio silent on Volume II each time he testified.
“In other words, Clients cannot rely on DOJ’s assertions about its own interpretation of the facts and this case, let alone the Order,” the filing added. “Moreover, DOJ, as a party subject to the Order, cannot unilaterally amend or supersede the terms of that Order.”
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