District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday blocked the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump.
The Justice Department says it will release special counsel Jack Smith’s findings on Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election but will keep the rest of the report under wraps for now.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled Tuesday the Department of Justice can’t release Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into whether President-elect Donald Trump unlawfully withheld White House documents, after Smith suggested the final report could come out later this week.
Donald Trump’s legal team revealed that the special prosecutor’s final report alleges Trump “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort” with regard to his mishandling of classified documents.
Trump's attorneys asked Garland to withhold special counsel Jack Smith's final report from the public, arguing its release would be "imprudent and unlawful."
Smith’s classified documents case against Trump was effectively stymied by Cannon. Smith appealed that decision, but Department of Justice policy dictates that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. So this case against Trump is basically done. But Smith still intends to send a final report on his case to the DOJ.
Trump tries to block the public from seeing special counsel Jack Smith’s final report. Two federal death row inmates don’t want their sentence to be commuted by Biden. And a winter storm starts heading offshore of the eastern U.S. while California braces for high winds.
The Florida judge who has overseen one of the criminal cases against Donald Trump has blocked the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his investigations. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered that the Justice Department be temporarily enjoined from releasing the report as the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reviews the issue.
Aileen Cannon is apparently so desperate to signal her loyalty to Trump that she’s flailing about where she has no jurisdiction.
Special counsel Jack Smith was finalizing his report about Trump's two indictments for release as early as Friday if the judge hadn't blocked it.
In his letter to Garland, Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that Smith was unlawfully appointed to the position of special counsel — the key reason Cannon dismissed the case last July. Thus, if his final report were to be published, it would violate the Appointments Clause and the Appropriations Clause, he said.