CHARLESTON — Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is co-leading a coalition of 24 state attorneys general in urging a federal court to reject special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case.

The coalition, co-led by West Virginia and Iowa, wrote in the amicus brief that “for several reasons, the United States’ request is unjustified.”

“Once again, we are witnessing a prosecutor seek to keep the presumptive Republican nominee for President from speaking in the midst of an election,” Moody said. “The First Amendment, at its core, is designed to protect political speech, and I along with my colleagues will not stand idly by and watch the Biden administration trample the free speech of a Florida citizen.”