FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago asked a judge to protect them before testifying to a grand jury probing an alleged conspiracy against President Donald Trump.
The motion, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, asks U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to clarify her February 23 order barring the Justice Department from sharing Volume II of former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report.
The agents want the court to confirm they can “freely discuss non-public information related to their work on the investigation with individuals outside of the DOJ,” including a federal grand jury and their own lawyers.
According to the filing, representatives of the FBI’s Miami Field Office contacted the agents’ attorneys in July and August to schedule interviews. The interviews are part of a probe into alleged violations of federal conspiracy and civil rights laws. Prosecutors said the agents would then testify before a Fort Pierce grand jury investigating an alleged “grand conspiracy” against President Donald Trump.
Two agents received grand jury subpoenas on September 21. One is scheduled to testify the week of September 28, and two others are set to appear the following week. According to the motion, one of the subpoenaed agents reviewed the entire Volume II to confirm its accuracy. Another agent represented by the same attorneys is the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affiant.
The agents’ lawyers, who include Abbe Lowell and Mark Zaid, argue that grand jurors fall “outside the Department of Justice” under the order’s plain terms. That leaves their clients “between the horns of a dilemma where either answering questions or declining to do so could put them in legal peril.”
When asked, DOJ told the lawyers only that its “work does not disturb” the order. It gave no factual or legal basis for that view. The filing says the DOJ refused to share an opinion it previously sent to Smith’s lawyer. That opinion warned that Smith discussing non-public Volume II material with Congress would violate the order.
“In short, when it suits its purposes, DOJ has taken an expansive view of the prohibitions of the Order,” the motion states.
The motion notes that many of the agents were fired by FBI Director Kash Patel in February. It says prosecutors have floated immunity, though none has been formally offered. The lawyers argue immunity would not shield their clients from contempt.
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