 "Judge blocks release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on Trump investigations")
US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump.
According to a CNN report, Cannon’s order prevents Smith and the Justice Department from moving forward with releasing the report until the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals has time to review the emergency motion by Trump’s codefendants to block the report’s release.
The decision follows a wave of legal filings from Monday night into Tuesday, with Trump’s lawyers having already reviewed a draft of Smith’s report related to federal investigations, as noted in court documents submitted by Trump’s former co-defendants, added the report.
The ruling may provide a temporary win for Trump, but it adds to a pattern of decisions by the Trump-appointed judge that favour the Republican.
According to The Associated Press, Smith’s team is expected to respond later on Tuesday.
Trump reacted to Cannon’s order by reiterating his complaints about Smith’s investigation, labeling it as “a fake case against a political opponent.”
Trump railed against the “weaponisation of justice” by Democrats and attacked special counsel Jack Smith, calling him a “deranged individual,” reported CNN.
He also criticised Judge Juan Merchan and his handling of the hush money case and praised Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to block the public release of Smith’s final report on his investigations into Trump.
It remains uncertain how the Justice Department, which follows its own guidelines for special counsels, plans to proceed after Cannon’s order, which restricts the report’s release until three days after the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals resolves the matter, reported The Associated Press.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe two-volume report is likely to outline charging decisions from Smith’s investigations into Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results leading up to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Earlier, Smith indicated that the volume concerning the documents investigation would not be made public by the Justice Department before 10 am on Friday at the earliest.
Trump faces charges alongside two co-defendants in the classified documents case, which was dismissed by Cannon in July due to her ruling that Smith’s appointment was unlawful.
Trump is also charged in an election interference case, which was significantly narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Smith’s team abandoned both cases in November after Trump’s presidential victory, citing Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Trump’s lawyers, including Todd Blanche, whom Trump appointed as his deputy attorney general, urged Merrick Garland in a letter made public late Monday to block the report’s release and remove Smith from his position “promptly” or defer the report’s release to the incoming attorney general.
Using language that mimicked Trump’s own attacks on Smith and his work, Blanche told Garland that the “release of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the huge sums of taxpayer money Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases.”
The letter was attached in an exhibit to an emergency request filed late Monday in federal court by lawyers for Trump’s codefendants in the documents case, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira. They asked Cannon to block the report’s release, noting that Smith’s appeal of her dismissal of charges against the men is still pending and that the disclosure of pejorative information about them will be prejudicial.
In response to that request, Smith’s team said in a two-page filing early Tuesday that it intended to submit its report to Garland by the afternoon and that the volume pertaining to the classified documents investigation would not be made public before 10 a.m. Friday. It is presumed that both volumes of Smith’s report would be released simultaneously.
Justice Department regulations call for special counsels appointed by the attorney general to submit a confidential report at the conclusion of their investigations.
Garland has so far made public in their entirety the reports produced by special counsels who operated under his watch, including Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information and John Durham’s report on the FBI’s Russian election interference investigation.
With inputs from agencies
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