Prosecutors said in a court filing on Friday that former US President Donald Trump may have violated weapons regulations if he purchased a handgun while under federal indictment during a recent campaign rally in South Carolina.
“The defendant either purchased a gun in violation of the law and his conditions of release or seeks to benefit from his supporters’ mistaken belief that he did so,” according to a court document. “It would be a separate federal crime, and thus a violation of the defendant’s conditions of release, for him to purchase a gun while this felony indictment is pending.”
Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 US presidential election, was given a Glock pistol emblazoned with his likeness.
The court filing adds that Trump said he had “got to buy one” and that a campaign staffer uploaded a video clip on social media saying, “President Trump purchases a [Glock] in South Carolina!” The staffer later deleted the social media post and clarified that the former US president did not buy or take possession of the firearm.
However, federal prosecutors questioned this account of events in a court filing on Friday, noting that the assertion was “directly contradicted by the video showing the defendant possessing the pistol.”
“President Trump did not purchase or take possession of the firearm,” the Trump campaign said afterwards. He simply stated that he desired one.”
Prosecutors made the claim in a court document requesting for a gag order to be imposed on Trump as part of a federal prosecution in which he is accused of obstructing the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.
According to the court petition, the former president may be tampering with possible witnesses or jurors by making “disparaging and inflammatory attacks” on those implicated in Trump’s criminal investigations. He has previously described Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing investigations into Trump’s alleged complicity in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol as a “deranged person.”
Trump’s lawyers have argued that putting a gag order on a leading presidential candidate would violate his “First Amendment freedoms.”
If Trump is found to have behaved illegally by attempting to obtain a firearm, it would be similar to the allegations currently facing Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who was charged earlier this year.
