According to a new court filing by Smith’s team, federal authorities are now examining a series of internet threats directed at a potential witness in special counsel Jack Smith’s secret materials case against former President Donald Trump.
In a late Wednesday filing in federal court in Florida, Smith’s team asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge overseeing the case, to let them file an exhibit under seal because, they wrote, “The exhibit describes in some detail threats that have been made over social media to a prospective Government witness and the surrounding circumstances, and the fact that those threats are the subject of an ongoing federal investigation being handled by a United States Attorney’s Office.”
“Disclosure of the details and circumstances of the threats risks disrupting the investigation,” according to the report.
The targeted witness has not been identified.
The three-page file on the investigation was produced as part of a debate between Smith’s team and Trump’s lawyers over how much material should be redacted (or completely hidden from public view) in certain court papers.
In their brief on Wednesday, Smith’s team begged Judge Cannon to allow them to place the exhibit completely under seal because just redacting names or other elements of the paper could still “provide information to the suspect to which he/she may not otherwise be entitled.”
Last year, Smith charged Trump in Florida for allegedly ignoring a federal grand jury subpoena and attempting to conceal sensitive papers from the FBI and his own counsel. Smith then accused Trump in Washington, DC, of allegedly attempting to change the 2020 presidential election results. Trump has pleaded not guilty in both counts, denying any wrongdoing.
In October, Smith’s team accused Trump of threatening his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, after an ABC News report detailed some of what Meadows allegedly told investigators about Trump and the 2020 presidential election, including how he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks following the election that allegations of significant voting fraud were false.
Following the ABC News report, Trump stated on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he would not expect Meadows to “lie about the Rigged and Stolen” election “merely for getting IMMUNITY,” but that “some people would make that deal.”
“[T]hey are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future of our Failing Nation,” Trump said in a tweet.
In a subsequent court filing, Smith’s lawyers claimed that Trump’s “harmful” post on Truth Social was intended to “send an unmistakable and threatening message to a foreseeable witness in this case.”
Smith’s side argued before U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan that the alleged threat was merely another example of why a limited gag order in the case was required. Such a gag order remains in effect.