FORT PIERCE — The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case will hear arguments Monday, June 24, over whether to bar the former president from making comments that prosecutors say could endanger the lives of FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Special Counsel Jack Smith asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to issue a limited gag order after Trump claimed that agents who searched his Palm Beach home for classified documents were prepared to kill him. Trump wrote in a fundraising email that the armed officers were “locked & loaded, ready to take me out & put my family in danger,” despite the fact that agents carried out the search warrant while he and his family were out of the state.

Trump said the agents were “just itching to do the unthinkable.” His comments stem from standard text in FBI policy that allows deadly force in the face of “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”

Who is Aileen Cannon? What to know about the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the classified documents case

Cannon initially rejected the request for a gag order on a technicality, admonishing prosecutors for not sufficiently conferring with Trump’s legal team before seeking it. Prosecutors subsequently renewed the request and are prepared to argue for it Monday.

They say that Trump’s comments could threaten the lives of FBI agents and other law-enforcement officials involved in the case, pointing to an attempted attack on an FBI office in Ohio three days after the Mar-a-Lago search. Trump’s lawyers say that any restriction would infringe on his freedom of speech.

Trump hearing is second of three at Fort Pierce federal courthouse

Monday’s proceeding is part of a three-day hearing that began Friday and will continue Tuesday. The back-to-back proceedings concern a slate of other unresolved pretrial issues, including a defense motion to exclude evidence seized by the FBI during the Mar-a-Lago search, as well as another motion to dismiss the charges.

Some Trump critics and legal analysts have questioned Cannon’s willingness to hear defense arguments which prosecutors say are “meritless.” The New York Times reported Thursday that two judges — including the chief federal judge in the Southern District of Florida — urged Cannon to step down from the case after she was randomly assigned to oversee it. Cannon, who Trump appointed to the federal bench in January 2020, declined to do so.

She has been scrutinized over her handling of the case since she was selected to oversee it, both for taking months to issue rulings and for entertaining dubious legal claims — all of which make a trial before the presidential election in November unlikely.

Cannon has not hinted at a potential trial date since she postponed it in May. Prosecutors have suggested that it could begin in early July, while Trump’s lawyers have argued it should start no earlier than August. The Republican National Convention is scheduled for July 15-18 in Milwaukee.

Accused of hoarding classified documents and thwarting the government’s efforts to retrieve them, Trump and his aides Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump classified documents case: Judge considers gag order