A former federal prosecutor predicts President Donald Trump’s latest bid to keep former special counsel Jack Smith’s report hidden is about to fall apart.
Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, said in a Thursday episode of “Talking Feds” that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to reject a request from Trump and co-defendant Walt Nauta to delay a November 2 oral argument over the release of Volume II of Smith’s report.
Volume II covers Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, has blocked its release since dismissing the case on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed.
According to a response filed Tuesday by the Knight First Amendment Institute, the defense cited a trial engagement for Nauta’s attorney, a three-day personal trip for co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira’s attorney and a need for Trump’s attorney to confer with her client. The institute, which is appealing Cannon’s refusal to let it intervene, called the report “a document of singular historic importance.”
Litman said that appeals courts almost never grant such requests.
“Courts of appeals are very reticent to say, well, you’ve got your son’s graduation,” Litman said, using a hypothetical. “They very rarely grant them.”
He brushed off the defense’s excuses.
“Trump doesn’t know the first thing about this case,” Litman said. “There’s only one thing going on. Delay, delay, delay as long as possible and until the midterms.”
Litman accused Cannon of running the same playbook for years, saying she “sat on it and sat on it and sat on it” after the Knight Institute moved to intervene in February 2025.
He also argued that Nauta and De Oliveira, whose cases are over, have little to lose if the report comes out.
“It’s like a feather on one side and a two-ton weight on the other,” he said.
“I’ll bet you see this motion denied in pretty short order and the oral argument take place on November 2,” Litman said, though he cautioned that the outcome depends on which judges sit on the panel.
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