U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appears poised to ignore urgent pleadings from Special Counsel Jack Smith, and possibly, experts warn, put confidential witnesses at risk.

Judge Cannon, overseeing the trial of Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents and Espionage Act case, this week ordered the Special Counsel to hand over to Trump’s lawyers the names of witnesses in a previously unknown DOJ investigation into death threats those witnesses allegedly received. She also ordered Smith to hand over to Trump lawyers the contents of those death threats.

Smith quickly moved, urgently asking her to reconsider, noting it was contrary to established procedure and could put lives at risk.

Late Friday afternoon Cannon rejected Smith’s plea, instead ordering him to hand over to Trump’s lawyers the “sealed” information by Saturday, pending what she suggests is further consideration: “The exhibit shall remain sealed pending further Court order.”

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MSNBC legal contributor and correspondent Katie Phang posted the order:

In the MAL case, Judge Cannon has entered the following order wherein she keeps a Government exhibit sealed, for now, but orders Special Counsel, Jack Smith, to turn it over to Defendants Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira on or before February 10th. pic.twitter.com/KgHRJzHfwn

— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) February 9, 2024

Attorney Ben Meiselas, co-founder of the MeidasTouch Network, says Cannon’s Friday afternoon move is “effectively imperiling the safety of witness and intentionally compromising the DOJ investigation!”

On Wednesday, Special Counsel Smith had notified Judge Cannon of his intent to file a motion to reconsider, including sealed information for only her to review.

“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.”

Smith added, “short of sealing the exhibit, e,g., redaction of persons’ names, will not suffice to protect the integrity of the investigation because even with such names redacted, the details of the exhibit could reveal investigative methods, potentially further endanger the victim, and/or provide information to the suspect to which he/she may not otherwise be entitled.”

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Smith had written that the “discovery material, if publicly docketed in unredacted form as the Court has ordered, would disclose the identities of numerous potential witnesses, along with the substance of the statements they made to the FBI or the grand jury, exposing them to significant and immediate risks of threats, intimidation, and harassment, as has already happened to witnesses, law enforcement agents, judicial officers, and Department of Justice employees whose identities have been disclosed in cases in which defendant Trump is involved,” according to Law & Crime.

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin explains Cannon’s order, directing Smith to hand over the information Trump’s ;lawyers requested, “would, among other things, reveal the names of two dozen people who have participated in the Mar a Lago investigation.”

“If information about an ongoing federal investigation into threats to a prosecution witness is not worthy of an ex parte, under seal filing, I don’t know what is,” Rubin adds. “And the fact that this latest directive forcing disclosure was made in the context of Smith’s motion for Cannon’s reconsideration of two more extensive orders also forcing premature disclosure of investigative details and witness identities is mind boggling.”

House Ethics Committee investigators examining U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and allegations he had sex with an underaged teenage girl have obtained the cooperation of the star witness in the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s investigation into the Florida Republican Congressman.

A lawyer for Joel Greenberg, the former close friend and “confidant” who Gaetz once described as his “wingman,” says his client “has and will cooperate with any congressional request,” The New York Times reported Friday.

Attorney Fritz Scheller “said he provided documents to the committee related to claims Mr. Greenberg has made about Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Greenberg previously told federal investigators that he had witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl,” The Times noted.

Greenberg, a former Florida Republican tax collector who is now serving an 11-year sentence for “an array of crimes, including sex trafficking a minor,” The Times reported in 2021, “had previously cooperated with a Justice Department investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had engaged in sex trafficking of a minor, a federal offense that carries a minimum of 10 years in prison.”

After sentencing, Greenberg’s own attorney chastised the Dept. of Justice, saying he was “disappointed” after all the evidence his client provided, that others were not prosecuted.

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Greenberg “pleaded guilty … to six of the 33 federal charges he was facing, including charges of stalking, identity theft, wire fraud, and conspiracy to bribe a public official, as well as one charge of sex trafficking,” ABC News reported at the time.

“Mr. Greenberg has told federal authorities that he witnessed Mr. Gaetz have sex with the 17-year-old girl and that she was paid,” The New York Times reported in 2022. “In documents filed in connection with Mr. Greenberg’s sentencing, the Justice Department said he had ‘provided truthful and timely information’ that led to the charging of at least four other individuals and ‘provided substantial assistance on other matters’ that the government would address only in a sealed filing.”

Scheller, who was also Greenberg’s attorney in 2022, had blasted DOJ in a memo, writing: “If the Government is so concerned with general deterrence, then why hasn’t it prosecuted the other individuals, including public figures, who were also involved in Greenberg’s offenses?”

“Perhaps the DOJ are master strategists far beyond the capabilities of the undersigned. Or perhaps the DOJ is like Nero fiddling away as Rome burns.”

Scheller also had told reporters, “I’m shocked – I am disappointed by a number of prosecutions that haven’t been brought.”

After pausing for a moment and saying he wanted to think about how he would answer a reporter’s question, Scheller said, “I think there’s a number of prosecutions that can be brought in the areas of the SBA fraud, the bribery and kickbacks, election fraud, and the sex cases.”

Watch Scheller’s remarks from 2022 below or at this link.

Reporter: “Are you shocked that [Rep. Matt Gaetz] hasn’t been arrested yet?”

Fritz Scheller, attorney for Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg: “I am disappointed by a number of prosecutions that haven’t been brought …” pic.twitter.com/5ibhjepEUK

— The Recount (@therecount) December 1, 2022

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Christian nationalist North Carolina Republican Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, currently the leading candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, launched an attack on transgender women years after the Tar Heel State’s last GOP governor cost the state millions – and possibly billions – of dollars, and cost him his political career over the very same issue.

“We’re going to defend women in this state,” vowed Robinson, according to WUNC, at a campaign stop earlier this month. “That means if you’re a man on Friday night, and all the sudden on Saturday, you feel like a woman, and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the mall, you will be arrested — or whatever we got to do to you.”

“In campaign speeches in recent weeks,” WUNC added, “Robinson suggested that people who previously identified as male should be ‘arrested’ if they go in a women’s bathroom. Instead, he suggests they should ‘find a corner outside somewhere’ to relieve themselves.”

RELATED: Watch: Bigoted NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson Berates Democratic Lawmaker for Denouncing His Anti-LGBTQ Hate Speech

In a different campaign speech Robinson said, “if you are confused, find a corner outside somewhere to go. We’re not tearing society down because of this.”

Last year at a campaign rally speech talking about “problems” in the state Robinson attacked “so-called educators” and told supporters, “two plus two does not equal transgender.”

The Lt. Governor, a Trump supporter and endorser, has declared, “I’m MAGA all the way.”

Last year, The Jerusalem Post reported that after Robinson “was elected to the state’s second-highest office in 2020, revelations emerged that he was the prolific author of Facebook posts downplaying the threat of Nazism, invoking antisemitic stereotypes and targeting other minority groups.”

And last month, the Carolina Public Press reported that Robinson “remains under a N.C. State Board of Elections investigation into allegations of more than $500,000 of campaign finance violations in 2020, according to Bob Hall, the former executive director of Democracy NC and a campaign finance watchdog.”

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In 2022, WRAL reported, “Robinson has a history of financial trouble, including three bankruptcies in 1998, 1999 and 2003 and seven years of unpaid federal income taxes, court records show.” Confronted with “five unpaid bills from 2006 to 2018,” Robinson told the news outlet, “I’m not very good at math.”

Robinson, should he win the nomination, would likely face North Carolina Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, who is currently leading in the polls in the Democratic primary.

Watch the short clip of Robinson’s remarks below or at this link.