Federal Judge Aileen Cannon Blocks Jack Smith From Releasing Final Report on the Classified Documents Case

A federal judge has blocked Special Counsel Jack Smith from releasing the final report of the alleged Trump 2020 election interference and classified document cases.

The report, which would be handed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, would have allowed the Special Counsel to explain the prosecution team’s actions throughout the prosecution. 

The outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland had promised to make most of the report public, which could have happened as early as this week before Trump’s inauguration. Democrats are scrambling across every corner to release any damaging information to overshadow the former President’s historic return.

However, Trump’s co-defendants, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, had filed an emergency motion to block the release. Nauta and De Oliveira were charged with conspiracy to obstruct the FBI from investigating the classified documents, and both have pleaded not guilty. 

Although the Department of Justice removed Trump from its appeal of the case when he won the 2024 elections, the two defendants could still face prosecution if the DOJ’s appeal succeeds. Thus, they argued that the release of the final report would prejudice their case if it were to proceed.   

Subsequently, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida Aileen Cannon granted the motion barring Smith from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report or any drafts of such Report outside the Department of Justice.”

The temporary injunction remains in force until three days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rules on whether to release the report.

Nonetheless, Cannon’s decision to halt the publication of the final report has angered Democrats. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA-11) said the report should have been released before the inauguration to expose the “full extent of the President-elect’s unlawful possession of hundreds of the government’s most sensitive documents.”

“The public’s right to know is paramount,” he added.

Judge Cannon had also tossed out Trump’s classified document case on the grounds that the Special Counsel was unconstitutionally appointed to prosecute it. However, the DOJ appealed, which could result in an unfavorable ruling against Trump’s co-defendants, who remain on the case. In November, Judge Tanya Chutkan also dropped Trump’s charges in the 2020 election interference case.

Smith, who now had the power to imprison a former president, was not appointed by the president or vetted by Congress. The president-elect had previously insisted that Smith was unlawfully appointed. 

He recently did not mince words when describing the Special Counsel, whom he had promised to fire within two seconds of taking office.

“They brought this moron out of the Hague. He’s a mean guy. He’s a mean, nasty guy,” he posted on X.

“With his robe, his purple robe, and he executes people. He shouldn’t be allowed to execute people because he’ll execute everybody. He’s a nutjob.”