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In
court filings, lawyers for James Wolfe, former security chief
for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said comments by Trump
after Wolfe's June 7 arrest were "highly prejudicial" and asked
the court to issue an order prohibiting further public comments
on the case by Trump and others.
In an indictment made public earlier this month, federal
prosecutors accused Wolfe, who worked for the committee for
nearly 30 years, of lying to the FBI when he claimed he had not
been in contact with any reporter, and claimed he did not
disclose information he had learned while working for the
committee to two journalists. Wolfe is not specifically charged
with leaking classified information.
Wolfe pleaded not guilty to the charges at a hearing before a
federal magistrate judge last week.
In their motion seeking a gag order, Wolfe's lawyers said that
the morning after Wolfe's arrest, Trump announced that the
Justice Department had caught "a very important leaker." The
lawyers say that at the time Trump made these statements, Wolfe
had not yet been arraigned on the charges, let alone had them
heard by a judge or jury.
The lawyers said that Trump's "prejudicial and improper
statements" were widely reported by news media. They asked the
judge in the case to issue an order "prohibiting further
extrajudicial statements" by participants in the case,
"including all relevant members of the Executive Branch, up to
and including the President of the United States."
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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