On Tuesday, a US district judge, Aileen Cannon, ordered a temporary halt to the Department of Justice from releasing special prosecutor Jack Smith’s final report on the two criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump.
Judge Cannon’s order comes as the office of special prosecutor Smith is set to close in a few days. Smith is expected to submit a final report to Attorney General Merrick Garland, detailing the results of the investigations into Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office in 2021 and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. According to regulations, the Attorney General must decide whether to make the report public upon receiving it from the special prosecutor.
Garland has indicated that the report will be made public in some form.
Smith, who initiated the two lawsuits, filed for dismissal of the cases last November, and the court approved the request, rejecting the Department of Justice’s charges against Trump in these two cases.
In the court documents filed at the time, Smith stated that the motion to dismiss was based on a longstanding Department of Justice policy that prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents to avoid interfering with their ability to govern.
However, the cases involving the two co-defendants of Trump in the classified document case are still ongoing.
Judge Cannon’s order to temporarily block the release of Smith’s final reports was made at the request of Trump’s two co-defendants.
These individuals are Trump’s personal assistant Walter Nauta and property manager Carlos De Oliveira at Mar-a-Lago resort. On Monday evening, Trump and their lawyers filed a motion requesting Judge Cannon to prevent Smith from releasing the two volumes of the final report.
The lawyers wrote, “Smith does not have the authority to access the materials on which the final report is based as a disqualified special prosecutor – his attempt to share these materials with the public is highly inappropriate.”
In a letter to Attorney General Garland, Trump’s lawyers revealed that they had reviewed a draft of the report and requested Garland to dismiss Smith and leave the decision on whether to release the report to the newly appointed Attorney General nominated by the incoming President.
Judge Cannon’s order prohibits the Department of Justice from releasing the report or any part of it within three days of the federal appeals court ruling on the matter.
The order also prohibits Garland, the Department of Justice, Smith, and all their officials, agents, employees, and anyone actively cooperating or involved with them outside of the Department of Justice from “publishing, sharing, or transmitting the final report or any drafts of the report.”
In court documents filed on Monday, Smith stated that Trump and his co-defendants had recently reviewed the contents of the report and improperly disclosed certain details.
Last July, Judge Cannon deemed Smith’s appointment by Garland illegal, thus dismissing Smith’s prosecution of Trump and the two co-defendants. The Department of Justice appealed the ruling, but in November, withdrew the part related to Trump based on the policy prohibiting criminal charges against sitting presidents, seeking only to reinstate the charges against Trump’s two employees, with the appeal still pending.
A Department of Justice spokesperson indicated that in a court filing submitted earlier on Tuesday, the Department of Justice committed not to release the report before Friday at the earliest.
Early Tuesday morning, Smith’s team submitted a document and pledged to provide further responses before 7 p.m. Eastern Time. The document stated, “The Department of Justice can commit that the Attorney General will not make the volume public before 10 a.m. on Friday, January 10, 2025, even if he intends to release it.”
Friday also marks the day when Trump faces sentencing in the “hush money case” in New York.
(Reference sources: The Hill, POLITICO)