A free speech institute asked a federal judge in Florida on Monday to make public the special counsel report about the classified documents case against President Trump, arguing that the public has a First Amendment right to see it.
The request, made to Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the Southern District of Florida, who oversaw that case and eventually dismissed it, was the latest effort seeking the release of the report by the former special counsel, Jack Smith.
In the waning days of the Biden administration, Judge Cannon intervened to block the Justice Department from showing the report to anyone outside the department. As part of that effort, she required the department to share a copy of the report with her.
The report is the second volume of a two-part report Mr. Smith wrote after dropping the federal criminal cases he brought against Mr. Trump because of his 2024 election victory. The Justice Department has long taken the position that sitting presidents are temporarily immune from prosecution.
The first volume, regarding the case Mr. Smith brought against Mr. Trump over his attempts to overturn his loss of the 2020 election, became public in January. But the second volume, about Mr. Trump’s retention of classified documents after leaving office, remains hidden.
Judge Cannon based her order to keep the report confidential on the idea that doing so would protect the rights of Mr. Trump’s two co-defendants, whose cases were not initially dropped, should they eventually be tried.
But, as expected, the Trump-era Justice Department swiftly asked the appeals court to dismiss the remainder of the case, and on Feb. 11 it did so. Citing the end of the matter, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University asked her to lift her injunction because its legal rationale has ended.
And in a twist, it also asked her to post the report on the public docket, arguing that the fact that she ordered the government to give her a copy of it has made it subject to the public’s constitutional right to see judicial records.
The report “is a judicial document inextricably intertwined with a proceeding that is itself subject to the constitutional access right,” the motion said.
Judge Cannon became known for showing unusual favor to Mr. Trump in her rulings throughout the investigation and the case. But even if she were to reject the request, the Knight First Amendment Institute could ask an appeals court to order the document made public.
The motion is the second attempt by an outside group to get Judge Cannon to address her order keeping the report secret.
American Oversight has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in the Federal District Court in Washington for the report, asserting that time was urgent because it wanted the public to know what Mr. Smith wrote about Kash Patel, whose nomination was then pending to be F.B.I. director.
Mr. Smith’s team had questioned Mr. Patel before a grand jury about his public claim that Mr. Trump, while still president, had declassified all the documents that accompanied him to his Florida club and estate, Mar-a-Lago, after he left office. But the Senate confirmed Mr. Patel as F.B.I. director on Feb. 20.
Judge Cannon has said she will address what, if anything, to do about her injunction next month. On Feb. 14, American Oversight asked her to immediately lift her order because the case had ended, but she declined to alter her timetable.
Separately, The New York Times has also filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in the Southern District of New York seeking access to the report.
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