A top prosecutor who handled some of the nation’s biggest political corruption cases dramatically apologized to Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon as Jack Smith’s team fought over a draft order of silence.
David Harbach, who led the prosecution of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, issued a stunning statement Monday in Cannon’s courtroom, in a case in which the Trump critics complain that she has repeatedly ruled against the government.
“I just want to apologize for everything that happened earlier,” Harbach said following a contentious courtroom exchange. “I didn’t want to be unprofessional. I’m sorry about that.”
That came after he appeared to bristle at questions from Cannon, a U.S. district judge in Florida, in response to his questions about the prosecution’s allegations that law enforcement officers were threatened and on Trump’s remarks about the FBI that fueled the government’s demand to change its conditions. of liberation.
“I don’t like your tone,” the judge said at one point. The judge told him she would “appreciate decorum at all times,” then warned: “If you are unable to do so, I am sure one of your colleagues can take on the task of defending this motion.
The Harvard-educated prosecutor worked for former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime Trump target.
The clash came Monday as Cannon heard new challenges to special counsel Jack Smith’s authority — this time asking whether there was a limit to the congressional funding that supports his office.
The Trump-appointed judge made the comment during a hearing in her Fort Pierce, Fla., courtroom as Trump’s lawyer argued that Smith’s funding violated rules governing congressional appropriations .
It’s one of several challenges Trump’s team has issued to the prosecutor handling the classified documents case against him. (Smith is also leading the Washington, D.C.-based Jan. 6 case, which is on hold while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s immunity claims.)
The judge’s comment came during a hearing in which Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, argued that Smith’s funding was against the laws governing funding from the start.
Judge Aileen Cannon questioned Donald Trump’s prosecutors and lawyers about Trump’s efforts to force special counsel Jack Smith out of the classified documents case.
“Is there a cap on funding? » Cannon asked him.
“There’s no control over the extent of what’s happening here,” Bove responded.
She also called the amount of money spent by the Justice Department on special counsels “significant.”
Speaking on behalf of Smith’s office, Deputy Special Counsel James Pearce said the DOJ is fully committed to ensuring that the special counsel’s office has the funds necessary to pursue prosecutions.
Cannon asked Pearce to clarify whether the deal’s budget so far was $9 million.
“But when it’s unlimited, there’s a separation of powers problem,” Cannon said.
Pearce said the DOJ has $1 billion on hand, even if the current funding stream is changed.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys were back in court after clashing Friday in Cannon’s courtroom, where she questioned defense attorneys and asked them to explain a “disturbing” argument after having challenged Smith’s appointment.
Bove said the law was applied in a way that gave AG Merrick Garland “the power to appoint a shadow government.”
Cannon’s willingness to give Trump’s lawyers time to argue their motions in open court, while also hearing amicus arguments from outside parties, sparked outside criticism that it was allowing Trump’s team to block the case.
The government has authorized the use of special prosecutors in one form or another for over a hundred years, and Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys failed in a similar effort against the use of special counsel David Weiss’s authority .
Critics accuse Cannon of repeatedly ruling in Trump’s favor and issuing decisions that demonstrated his inexperience in a complex classified documents case.
Trump’s team argued that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional. On Monday, they argued its funding violated appropriations laws.
Palm Beach County District Attorney David Aronberg, a Democrat, called it “mind-boggling.”
Cannon postponed the trial date in May and has not scheduled a new one, increasing the likelihood that Trump will not be tried in his classified documents case before the November election.
He will also hear arguments in his courtroom Monday over Smith’s new request for silence, after Trump accused FBI agents of having a plan to assassinate him based on a passage everywhere of a document listing the preparations for a search at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has called speech gags unconstitutional in other cases. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a restricted silence order in the D.C. case, and Jude Juan Merchan of New York imposed one in the secret trial of Stormy Daniels.
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