Conway on how special counsel gag order puts judge on the spot in Trump classified documents case

More now on the breaking news that we are getting in just this hour.

Tonight, in the Trump classified documents case as Jack Smith,

the special counsel and prosecutors are asking Judge

Eileen Cannon in Florida to place a gag order on former President Donald Trump

in the wake of his, quote, false and inflammatory statements

suggesting that law enforcement agents were authorized

to assassinate him when they executed a search warrant at Mar a Lago.

They had a standard deadly use of force policy.

They had the exact same one

when they conducted that search for documents at President Biden's home.

I should note that is something that Attorney General Merrick

Garland reminded everyone of this week when he was asked about this.

Jack Smith in this filing

tonight is arguing that Trump's comments has endangered law enforcement officers

involved in this investigation in the prosecution of this case

and that it threatens the integrity of the proceedings as well.

This is an extraordinary step by special counsel

Jack Smith, one that we have not seen him take yet.

And for more on this,

I want to bring in the former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

Andrew, let me read you

part of this filing that we're truly just reading as we're on air right now.

But Jackson, this team says, you know, they're talking about the implications

of Trump's comments, and that's echoed by his Republican allies.

And they say professional law enforcement officers and agents in this country

put their lives on the line every day and carrying out their duties

to enforce the law.

And they're saying that would execute in court or court authorized warrants.

Those professionals face many uncertainties and potentially grave risks

and they're saying to minimize that,

you know, agents here are just planning for all contagion contingencies.

That is part of their job.

And that is why you could read

about that deadly use of force policy in this search warrant.

That's absolutely right.

And so this is very important to understand the context.

This is an operations plan which is required for the execution

of every search warrant and arrest warrant that FBI agents engage in.

This is part of the FBI policy.

And the operations plan includes tons of information, primarily

for the other agents who are going to take part in that operation.

It tells them where to go, when to be there,

who's going to be driving, which vehicles, all sorts of things like that.

This particular section is required, but it's not.

It is part of the form.

Like it's not even something that agents

have to type in on every plan because it's baked into the form.

And that is a recitation of the DOJ's authorization

to use legal force, I'm sorry, lethal force.

The reason it's

there is to make sure that every agent who goes out on this operation understands

the limits of using lethal force, that they're only authorized

to use it to protect their life or the life of someone else.

It is not an authorization

or some sort of statement of intent or direction for the operation.

It is the legal limit on how

agents can use lethal force in the course of their duties.

And it's the same on every single operation.

I mean, I just wonder what it's like for you to to see these comments that

Trump's fundraising off of this, saying the FBI was,

quote, in all caps authorized to shoot me, that they were itching

to do the unthinkable, that they were, quote, locked and loaded,

ready to take me out and put my family in danger.

You know, we've known for a while that there's

absolutely no limit to the lies and the slander that the former president

will say and use against the FBI and its people, particularly.

He has been doing this for years.

But this actually, for me, reaches an all time low.

Right.

He's he is quite literally putting those agents

and the people who supported them on this mission in mortal danger.

Right.

This is a direct effort to inflame his supporters, to inflame his base,

some of whom not the majority, but some of whom we know.

Listen to these directions and these lies very carefully

and then take action based upon what they hear the former president say.

So I think that the special counsel is doing absolutely the right thing

and the necessary thing here to try to put some restraint on him

that will potentially keep these agents from getting harmed.

I also have George Conway here joining us, Andrew, on this breaking news.

And I mean, George Conway, obviously, I don't think it's any secret

to anyone who watching you're not a fan of Donald Trump,

but for something like this, for someone who declares himself the law

and order president and talks about how he's there

to back the blue and attends

memorial services for officers here in New York, and then to see

how he's talking about these law enforcement officers

simply because they work under the umbrella of the FBI

and how he feels about the FBI is quite remarkable

when you read how that puts it in these stark terms here in this filing.

Yeah, And I don't think you I mean, I don't think there are terms

that are stark enough to describe what Donald Trump has done here.

I mean, he's a pathological liar. He lies about everything.

But this lie is just an exceedingly dangerous lie.

As as as the attorney general and Mr.

McCabe has pointed out and and it's an attack on the entire system

of the legal system, as Judge Grasso put it before the break, and to emphasize

how dramatic this is, this message is going out

to tens of millions of people who are on the campaign mailing list.

I have the email right here, the campaign email.

I nearly escaped death from Donald Trump.

And again, you know, they're they're they're they're fishing.

They're they're just itching to do the unthinkable.

There it is.

Is is basically accusing the government of trying to take him out.

And, you know, 10 million people get this email.

I don't know how many people get this email.

All it takes is one or two of them to shoot somebody saying he was thinking

that, hey, I hit the government trying to shoot my president.

I'm going to I'm going to fight back.

And that's that's it's it's absolutely appalling.

I want to point out one other thing about this motion, which is a little kind

of a lesser aspect of it, but this is this really puts Judge Cannon on the spot.

Yeah.

This woman has absolutely, completely shown

an absolute bias against the government from day one.

In multiple ways, she's dragging her feet on this case.

And if she does not do something about this,

I think that I think the special counsel may use this as the opportunity

to try to get the 11th Circuit to get rid of her.

So she's really on the spot here.

She's actually going to have to.

Do you think that she'll do something?

I don't know.

But she she she better because this is just

this is just completely outrageous.

I mean, it is really an attempt to incite violence against government

agents based on the complete pathological lie and misreading and.

GROSS I mean, just absolutely obscene

misreading of a standard document that limits the use of force.

It's absolutely a the notion that that so many people

had to participate to send this email and an hour an hour beholden to Trump

and are doing these things just shows you the level of just

moral depravity that that that that Trump

emanates and that surrounds him.

It's I can't words cannot describe

that level of depravity to send to send this message out.

Yeah.

And I think it's safe to say it's an intentional misreading.

We'll see what Judge Cannon decides here.

Obviously, this is now in her hands.

George Conway, thank you for jumping on this breaking news with us.

Also to you, Andrew McCabe.

I really appreciate having both of your perspectives on this tonight.