Washington — A federal judge on Monday cleared the way for the Justice Department to release one of the two volumes that make up special counsel Jack Smith’s final report detailing his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon declined a request from Walt Nauta, an aide to Trump, and Carlos de Oliveira, former property manager at Mar-a-Lago, to block the release of Smith’s final report, writing “the court sees an insufficient basis to grant emergency injunctive relief as to Volume I.”
A federal appeals court separately declined to stop the report’s release after Cannon last week issued a temporary order precluding the Justice Department from making it public. Her order remains intact until 12 a.m. on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors have said in court filings that the first volume of Smith’s report pertains to the investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election. The second involves allegations the president-elect held onto classified documents after the end of his first term in 2021.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has said he will not publicly release the second part of the report, on the documents case, because proceedings involving Nauta and de Oliveira are ongoing. John Irving, an attorney for de Oliveira, declined to comment on Cannon’s ruling.
In her five-page decision, Cannon wrote that her “authority to enforce” rulings is “confined” to the classified documents case. The case involving the 2020 election was brought in Washington, D.C., and was overseen by a different judge.
Still, Cannon said there are outstanding legal issues over the Justice Department’s proposed plan to give certain members of Congress access to the second volume of the report. The defense teams have argued against that limited release, writing that doing so could risk leaks.
She set a hearing for Friday in her courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida, to go over that proposal.
Cannon wrote that the release of the report’s second volume, even on a limited basis, “risks irreversibly and substantially impairing the legal rights of defendants in this criminal proceeding. The court 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.”
She said the government has not “presented any justification to support the suggestion” that the second volume must be released to Congress now instead of “after a reasonable period for an expedited hearing and judicial deliberation on the subject.”
Jack Smith’s report
Cannon’s decision is the latest in a fast-moving legal battle over Smith’s report that is playing out just days before Trump will be sworn in for a second term. Once the president-elect returns to the White House on Jan. 20, it’s highly unlikely the special counsel’s report will be publicly released.
Smith resigned his position as special counsel last Friday, and Justice Department prosecutors are now overseeing all ongoing matters arising from his investigations. Smith’s two investigations and prosecutions of Trump have since been dropped because of his victory in the November presidential election.
As is required for special counsels, the special counsel drafted and submitted a final report to the attorney general last week. Garland has vowed to make public all special counsel reports completed while he is attorney general, and has so far followed through on that pledge, including after the investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents.
But Nauta and de Oliveira are fighting to keep the report shielded from the public. The two were charged for allegedly obstructing the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents. While Cannon dismissed the case against them on the grounds the special counsel was unconstitutionally appointed, federal prosecutors are appealing her decision as it relates to Nauta and de Oliveira.
Defense lawyers argued that disclosing the report to the public would unfairly prejudice potential future criminal proceedings against them. Defense attorneys simultaneously asked the 11th Circuit and Cannon last week to block the Justice Department from releasing the report.
Cannon temporarily stopped the report’s release until the 11th Circuit resolved the issue. The appeals court then denied Nauta and de Oliveira’s request to keep Smith’s report under wraps, but Cannon’s order remained in place. Just hours before the district court judge’s temporary restraining order was set to expire, Trump asked her to extend it to allow consideration of an earlier request to intervene.
“This sensible course will ensure full ventilation of these important issues, which are not changed by the government’s representations of what is in Volume I,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “These issues are weighty, serious, and ultimately establish that President Trump is entitled to full relief.”
The president-elect is no longer a party to the proceedings since he was dropped from the case in late November, and he accused the Justice Department of attempting to “interfere with an incoming presidential administration in this manner, let alone on the very eve of inauguration.”
Federal prosecutors told the 11th Circuit that Garland would not release the portion of Smith’s report that deals with the documents case while proceedings involving the two co-defendants are ongoing, but did plan to disclose the first volume involving the 2020 election case. They said he would make a redacted version of the second volume available for review only by top lawmakers on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and only if they agreed not to share information from it.
“This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the department while safeguarding defendants’ interests,” prosecutors wrote.
The Justice Department further told the district court in a filing Sunday that “without referencing defendants Nauta or De Oliveira, any conduct by them, any evidence against them, or the charges against them, Volume One does makes two references to the Classified Documents Case.”
Last week, Garland informed lawmakers that Smith had finished his investigation and submitted the two-volume report. The attorney general reiterated his intent to make public the first volume “in furtherance of the public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter,” but would not release the second volume “to avoid any risk of prejudice” to Nauta and de Oliveira.
Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.
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