A federal judge has blocked the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Judge’s Ruling
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who previously oversaw key proceedings related to Smith’s investigations, permitted the first volume of the report to be released. That portion pertains to Smith’s inquiry into Trump’s alleged attempts to undermine the 2020 election. However, Cannon denied the release of the second volume, which focuses on Trump’s retention of classified materials, citing what she described as the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) reliance on “a non-existent historical practice” to justify its urgency.
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As Law & Crime has previously reported, the federal criminal cases against Trump have been dropped due to longstanding DOJ policy against indicting and prosecuting a sitting president, even as Smith moved forward with preparing a report about the investigations themselves. But presidential immunity from prosecution does not extend to Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
Nauta and De Oliveira have repeatedly implored Cannon to stop the release of the report in any capacity, arguing it would cause them irreparable damage — even if the cases against them are dropped, as is likely.
Cannon on Tuesday morning issued a 14-page order reasoning that the DOJ under the previous administration offered “no valid justification” for its stated desire to share a redacted version of the report’s second volume with four lawmakers while the cases against the president’s former co-defendants remains on appeal.
In the order, Cannon maligned the Biden administration’s DOJ for its efforts to have the report viewed by congressional leaders, taking particular issue with the claim that Attorney General Merrick Garland had “limited time” remaining in his position and wanted to “see this [investigation] through to conclusion and comply with historical practice.”
“Never before has the Department of Justice, prior to the conclusion of criminal proceedings against a defendant—and absent a litigation-specific reason as appropriate in the case itself—sought to disclose outside the Department a report prepared by a Special Counsel containing substantive and voluminous case information. Until now,” Cannon noted, excoriating the federal government. “There is no ‘historical practice’ of providing Special Counsel reports to Congress, even on a limited basis, pending conclusion of criminal proceedings. In fact, there is not one instance of this happening until now.”
Smith’s Departure
Smith announced his decision to resign from the DOJ in a court filing dated Jan. 11. This decision followed speculation about whether the department would accelerate proceedings against Trump during the presidential transition.
However, if there were any plans to expedite proceedings, they did not materialize, leaving the release of Smith’s findings in limbo as the DOJ transitions under new leadership.
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