Judge who blocked release of Trump report was ’plainly’ wrong, special counsel tells appeals court

Author of the article:

Associated Press

Eric Tucker

Published Jan 11, 2025  •  2 minute read

FILE - Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at an office of the Department of Justice in Washington. Photo by J. Scott Applewhite /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to move swiftly in reversing a judge’s order that had blocked the agency from releasing any part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump.

Article content

Article content

Article content

The emergency motion late Friday is the latest back and forth in a court dispute over whether any portion of Smith’s report can be made public before Trump takes office Jan. 20. The push to release it before Trump’s inauguration reflects concerns that the Justice Department under the Trump administration, which will include members of his personal legal team in key leadership roles, would be in position to prevent the report from coming to light.

The department is hoping to release in the coming days one part of its two-volume report focused on Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The department has said it will not publicly disclose a separate volume _ about Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he left the White House in January 2021 — as long as criminal proceedings against two of Trump’s co-defendants remain pending.

Article content

Article content

Both investigations resulted in indictments of Trump, though Smith’s team abandoned both cases in November after Trump’s election win. Smith cited Justice Department policy that bars the federal prosecution of a sitting president.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an emergency defense bid Thursday to block the release of the election interference report, which covers Trump’s efforts before Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to undo the results of the 2020 election. The appeals court left in place an injunction from a Trump-appointed lower court judge, Aileen Cannon, that said none of the findings could be released until three days after the matter was resolved by the appeals court.

Lawyers for Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, then asked Cannon to extend her injunction and to hold a hearing on the merits of their request to halt the release of the report.

Article content

The Justice Department responded late Friday by asking the appeals court to immediately lift Cannon’s injunction altogether. The filing noted that in addition to temporarily blocking the release of the election interference report, Cannon’s action also prevents officials from sharing the classified documents report privately with the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

Cannon’s order is “plainly erroneous,” according to the department’s motion.

“The Attorney General is the Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice and is vested with the authority to supervise all officers and employees of the Department,” the Justice Department said. “The Attorney General thus has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates.”

Justice Department regulations call for special counsels to produce reports at the conclusion of their work, and it’s customary for such documents to be made public no matter the subject.

William Barr, attorney general during Trump’s first term, released a special counsel report examining Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential ties to the Trump campaign.

Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also released special counsel reports, including about Biden’s handling of classified information before Biden became president.

Article content