Unconvinced Mar-a-Lago judge says it’s ‘difficult to see’ how Trump’s nod to George Washington can make Espionage Act indictment vanish

Donald Trump, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, special counsel Jack Smith

Left: Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File); Center: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. Senate); Right: Special counsel Jack Smith (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday asked the judge in charge of the Mar-a-Lago documents case to keep former president and convicted felon Donald Trump from filing any additional motions about the government’s requested gag order for the lead defendant.

In a matter of hours, however, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon reversed course on one of her earlier rulings and allowed the parties to each submit one, final, 10-page supplemental brief on the matter.

Smith, in his Thursday morning filing, sought to vindicate the court’s Monday, June 24, ruling in which Cannon said the evidentiary record on the gag order issue would be closed by Wednesday, June 26.

“No additional briefing will be permitted,” Cannon declared earlier this week in an order before reversing herself by Thursday afternoon.