Federal Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith's report into President-elect Donald Trump's cases.
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on investigations into Donald Trump as an appeals court considers a challenge to the document's release days before the president-elect takes office again.
Judge Aileen Cannon's decision may represent a short-lived victory for Trump, but it is nonetheless the latest example of the Trump-appointed jurist acting in favor of the Republican. The stay came in response to an emergency request filed Monday night by Trump's defense attorneys to block the release of the report, which they insist is biased and damaging. Smith's team is expected to respond later Tuesday.
Trump responded to Cannon's order by again complaining about Smith's investigation, saying, “It was a bogus case against a political opponent.”
It was unclear what the Justice Department, which has its own rules on special prosecutors, intended to do after Cannon's order, which barred publication of the report until three days after the matter is resolved by the U.S. Court of Appeals. 11th United States Circuit based in Atlanta.
The two-volume report is expected to outline charging decisions made in separate investigations by Smith into Trump's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the prelude to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Smith previously promised that at least the investigative volume of documents would not be made public by the Justice Department until 10 a.m. Friday at the earliest.
Trump was charged along with two co-defendants in the classified documents case, which was dismissed in July by Cannon, who concluded that Smith's appointment was illegal. Trump was also charged in an election interference case that was significantly narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Smith's team dropped both cases in November after Trump's presidential victory, citing the Justice Department's policy of not criminally prosecuting sitting presidents.
Trump's lawyers, including Todd Blanche, who was picked by Trump to serve as his deputy attorney general, urged Merrick Garland in a letter made public Monday night to block the release of the report and remove Smith “promptly.” ” — or else leave the issue in the hands of the next attorney general.
Using language that mimics Trump's own attacks on Smith and his work, Blanche tells Garland that the “publication of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a stunt.” illegal policy, designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the enormous sums of taxpayer money that Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases.”
The letter was attached as an exhibit to an emergency request filed Monday night in federal court by lawyers for Trump's co-defendants in the documents case: Trump aide Walt Nauta and the manager of the property Mar-a-Lago, Carlos De Oliveira. They asked Cannon to block the report's release, noting that Smith's appeal of his dismissal of charges against the men is still pending and that releasing derogatory information about them would be harmful.
In response to that request, Smith's team said in a two-page filing early Tuesday that it intended to send its report to Garland in the afternoon and that the volume related to the investigation of classified documents would not be made. public before 10 a.m. on Friday. It is presumed that both volumes of Smith's report would be published simultaneously.
Justice Department regulations require special prosecutors appointed by the attorney general to submit a confidential report upon concluding their investigations.
So far, Garland has made public in full the reports produced by special prosecutors who operated under his supervision, including Robert Hur's report on President Joe Biden's handling of classified information and John Durham's report on the investigation into Russian interference in the elections.