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For the duration of the flight, the instructions of the crew are law. Literally -- it is illegal to disobey the instructions of a crew-member. This sounds like a bit of a stretch, but this interpretation has held up so far. The actual FAA regulation says:
14 CFR 125.328
No person may assault, threaten, intimidate, or interfere with a crewmember in the performance of the crewmember's duties aboard an aircraft being operated under this part.
And it turns out that disobeying any instruction from a crewmember constitutes interference with that crewmember's duties, whether or not you intended to interfere with his/her duties by disobeying.
I'd be thrilled to be seated next to an air marshal. I'd probably get it sorted out faster.
The gate agent evidently meant that I was not to cover seats or wipe anything down. Because that might imply that they didn't "clean" the aircraft well enough. Strong hints about lack of fitness to fly, and-- just as Ajas indicates above, that we were "trying to cause some kind of incident."