A federal judge has temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s two-volume report detailing the crimes he believes Donald Trump committed by hoarding classified documents and in his role regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump and dragged her feet as she oversaw the classified documents case, made the ruling on Tuesday after a multiday effort by Trump’s lawyers to stop you from seeing the report.
Cannon’s ruling blocks the report’s release while the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers a challenge.
On Monday, in a bombastic and lie-filled 12-page letter, Trump's lawyers threatened Attorney General Merrick Garland with “legal action” if he releases Smith’s report. The lawyers falsely said that Trump has been "exonerated" of the numerous federal crimes with which he was charged, and that Garland should be firing Smith for his “crusade” against Trump, rather than releasing the report.
“No report should be prepared or released, and Smith should be removed, including for even suggesting that the course of action given his obvious political motivations and desire to lawlessly undermine the transition,” lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove—who are set to join Trump’s administration after he is sworn in on Jan. 20—wrote in the letter.
“If you elect to proceed with Smith’s plan, we again respectfully request (1) notice of such decision prior to any publication of the Draft Report, allowing us to take appropriate legal action, and (2) that this letter and Smith’s meritless responses to the legal arguments set forth herein be incorporated into the Report,” they continued.
The fact that Trump’s lawyers are trying to permanently block the report from public view is a sign that the report could be damaging to Trump, who won a second term in office despite the litany of federal crimes he was charged with (as well as the crimes he was convicted of).
Trump was charged with illegally retaining classified documents, conspiring to obstruct justice during the investigation of his classified document retention, and conspiracy to defraud the United States when he tried to block the transition of power to now-President Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.
Smith officially pulled the cases from court in November after Trump won the presidential election, citing a long-standing but misguided Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
The report, then, could be the only way the public ever sees just how strong the case the government had against Trump was in these cases.
Smith, for his part, has said he will be done with the report on Tuesday, and that he could release it as early as Friday, USA Today reported.
Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who probed Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, urged Garland to release the report.
“Trump is already doing what despots do— he is trying to conceal the truth and threatening to jail those who investigated him,” Cheney wrote in a post on X, adding, “Garland now has a duty to release the Justice Department Report and prevent its evidence from being destroyed.”
“The truth must prevail,” Cheney said. “The framers of our Constitution knew the lessons of history—that people led by men without character can quickly lose their freedom.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers are also trying to prevent a judge from sentencing Trump on his 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records. That case centered around the hush money he paid to a Playboy model and a porn actress to keep them from going public during the 2016 campaign with allegations that they both had an affair with Trump.
Trump is set to be sentenced in that case on Jan. 10, so long as an appeals court does not delay the sentencing.
