CNN
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Judge Aileen Cannon said on Monday that she would not block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
However, Cannon scheduled a court hearing later this week on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s plan to share with some lawmakers the part of Smith’s report dealing with the classified documents probe. In the meantime, she is continuing to halt the department from disclosing that aspect of the report to anyone outside of the agency.
The new order from the Trump-appointed judge is the latest twist in a court fight that has upended the Justice Department’s preparations for winding down its investigations into Trump before he is sworn into office next week, while jeopardizing the transparency Congress and the public have into those probes.
The department has historically released the final reports on special counsel investigations into presidents, including while those presidents were still in the White House. But as part of an unrelenting legal attack on Smith, Trump and his allies have delayed the publication of January 6 volume of the report, which is not expected to break new ground factually, and has paused even limited disclosure of the report on the classified documents investigation.
Trump has chosen multiple members of his personal defense teams for roles in his incoming administration.
Cannon, according to Monday’s order, is continuing to halt the department’s release of the report’s classified documents volume because she “is not willing to make that gamble on the basis of generalized interest by members of Congress, at least not without full briefing and a hearing on the subject.”
Garland had planned to allow the Republicans and Democrats who lead the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to review the report privately on the condition that they do not disclose information from it.
Garland has said he will publicly release the special counsel report into Trump and the 2020 election aftermath before Trump takes office next Monday. The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A previous order Cannon placed blocking release of both volumes will expire at midnight going into Tuesday, so the department could release the 2020 election case volume as soon as that, unless another court intervenes.
It’s unclear whether the Trump team or his former co-defendants will seek appeal with a higher court. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals already rejected their earlier request to block the report’s publication.
After Cannon’s latest order, Trump said on social media that Smith was “was illegitimately involved in this political persecution, and all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by our hapless government were, simply put, wasted!”
In the election subversion case, Smith alleged that Trump and several unindicted co-conspirators undertook a multi-stage scheme to attack the peaceful transfer of power, culminating in the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters. The case was stymied by a Supreme Court ruling last summer and ultimately dropped after Election Day.
In the Mar-a-Lago documents case, Trump was charged with mishandling national defense information he took with him from his first turn in the White House. He was also accused of obstructing the federal probe into the documents’ whereabouts, as were to of his two employees, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
The defense lawyers argued that Cannon’s decision last summer finding Smith was unconstitutionally appointed prevented Garland from releasing the report for both special counsel investigations. Because the appointments ruling is currently on appeal, raising the possibility the prosecution could be revived, the Trump employees also argue that releasing report could prejudice them as defendants. Trump was dismissed from the case after his reelection.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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