A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a bid from President-elect Trump’s two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case to block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report.
The court’s swift decision comes after the Trump team late Monday asked two different courts to bar the release of Smith’s report, set to cover both the Mar-a-Lago investigation and that into Trump’s efforts to block the transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the emergency motion. It did not, however, speed a lower court ruling that limits their decision from taking effect for three days.
Federal prosecutors argued there was no need to enjoin the release of Smith’s report. In a Wednesday filing, they wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland had determined it would be appropriate to publicly release only the Jan. 6 portion of the two-volume report.
At Smith’s advice, Garland committed to not releasing the volume of the report dealing with the Mar-a-Lago documents probe to avoid prejudicing a future jury. Valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos de Oliveira remain on trial even after charges were dropped with regard to Trump due to Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
The decision by Garland to withhold the Mar-a-Lago report all but assures the public will never see Smith’s report reviewing Trump’s mishandling of classified records at his Florida estate.
Trump has tapped his personal criminal defense team to fill out the ranks of the Justice Department, which is sure to drop charges against Nauta and de Oliveira and then decline to release Smith’s report.
The decision gives the green light to Garland to move ahead with his plans to release the Jan. 6 report.
The decision also unwinds a lower court ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who on Tuesday issued an order barring Garland from releasing both volumes of his report.
It was an unusual ruling because it was unclear whether Cannon had any jurisdiction over the matter, as a prior ruling from her tossing the case has been appealed to the 11th Circuit. She also enjoined Smith from releasing the portion of the report dealing with Jan. 6, 2021, a matter that was overseen by a D.C.-based federal judge.
