UPDATE (Jan. 8, 2025, 10:46 a.m. ET): The Justice Department on Wednesday asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the defense attempt to block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report. The DOJ said it doesn’t intend to publicly release the volume of the report related to the classified documents case while the case remains pending against Donald Trump’s former co-defendants, but it does intend to release the volume related to the federal election interference case. The DOJ asked the appeals court to deny the defense motion seeking to block the release of the report, set aside U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order temporarily blocking it, and make clear that the attorney general can allow limited congressional review of the classified documents volume and the public release of the federal election interference case volume.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has issued an order temporarily blocking the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his investigations into Donald Trump.
The action comes as litigation continues in the classified documents case, which has been on appeal in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against former Trump co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, where the government is appealing Cannon’s dismissal of the case. Smith has wound down Trump’s two federal prosecutions.
There is a similar defense motion pending in the appeals court trying to block the report. Noting that motion, Cannon wrote that her order is in effect until three days after the 11th Circuit resolves the appellate motion, unless the appeals court directs otherwise. Specifically, the order says:
Attorney General [Merrick] Garland, the Department of Justice, Special Counsel Smith, all of their officers, agents, and employees, and all persons acting in active concert or participation with such individuals … are TEMPORARILY ENJOINED from (a) releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report or any drafts of such Report outside the Department of Justice, or (b) otherwise releasing, distributing, conveying, or sharing with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions in the Final Report or in drafts thereof.
Cannon wrote that she was issuing the order to “preserve the status quo” while awaiting word from the 11th Circuit, “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.” She noted that the order was not a final resolution of the motion to block the report.
Nauta and De Oliveira, backed by Trump, had argued to both Cannon and the appeals court that releasing the report would unfairly prejudice them because the criminal case against them could still proceed. They have both pleaded not guilty.
Of course, the case might not proceed against them much longer after Trump is inaugurated, whether it is with the appeal being withdrawn by Trump’s Justice Department (to which he has picked his defense lawyers for top posts) or by Trump pardons. Smith dropped the documents case appeal only against the president-elect, not Nauta and De Oliveira, while Trump was the only defendant charged in the federal election interference case, which also was dismissed and is the subject of its own volume in Smith’s report.
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