Judge in Trump's classified docs case blocks release of special counsel's report
The judge in President-elect Donald Trump's classified documents case has temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith's final report in an attempt to prevent "irreparable harm" while the matter is considered by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon deferred the matter to the Eleventh Circuit but temporarily blocked the release of the report "to prevent irreparable harm arising from the circumstances as described in the current record in this emergency posture, and to permit an orderly and deliberative sequence of events."
The move came a day after Trump's former co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, asked Cannon -- who dismissed the classified documents case in July after deeming Smith's appointment unconstitutional -- to issue an order barring Attorney General Merrick Garland from publicly releasing the report.
Cannon said the order remains in effect until three days after the circuit court resolves the emergency motion, unless the circuit says otherwise.
While Trump's co-defendants argued against the release of the portion of the report related to the classified documents case -- and not the portion involving Trump's election interference case, which Smith also oversaw -- Judge Cannon referred only to the "final report," and not the two volumes within, suggesting that the entire report is blocked from release.
Attorneys for Trump, in a court filing Tuesday, had asked Cannon to allow Trump to formally join his former co-defendants' effort to block the report's release.
"As a former and soon-to-be President, uniquely familiar with the pernicious consequences of lawfare perpetrated by Smith, his Office, and others at DOJ, President Trump should be permitted to participate in these proceedings," Trump's attorneys argued in Tuesday's filing.
That filing came after the special counsel's office, responding early Tuesday to Nauta and De Oliveira's request for Cannon to block the report's release, confirmed the office is "working to finalize" a report and that Attorney General Garland -- who has the final say over what material from the report is made public -- has still not determined what to release from the volume that relates to Smith's classified documents investigation.
"This morning's Notice is the most recent example of Smith's glaring lack of respect for this Court and fundamental norms of the criminal justice system," Trump's lawyers wrote in their filing, referring to Smith's stated intention that his office plans to transmit the report to Attorney General Merrick Garland no later than 1 p.m. EST today.
The special counsel's office assured Judge Cannon in their filing that Smith would not release that specific volume of the report anytime before 10 a.m. Friday and that they would submit a fuller response to Nauta and DeOliveira's emergency motion no later than 7 p.m. Tuesday evening.
Trump's attorneys also sent a letter to Garland demanding he remove Smith from his post and defer the decision about the report's release to Trump's incoming attorney general, Pam Bondi.
"No report should be prepared or released, and Smith should be removed, including for even suggesting that course of action given his obvious political motivations and desire to lawlessly undermine the transition," wrote Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, Trump's defense attorneys who Trump has picked for top Justice Department posts in the incoming administration.
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation's defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government's efforts to get the documents back.
The former president, along with longtime aide Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to allegedly attempting to delete surveillance footage at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
Smith has been winding down his cases against the president-elect due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president -- moving to dismiss Trump's federal election interference case and dropping his appeal of the classified documents case -- and has been expected to submit a final report about his investigations to Garland before stepping down.
