Judge Aileen Cannon Allows Release Of Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 Trump Report
Key Facts
Cannon refused to extend an earlier order she issued that blocked the Justice Department from releasing Smith’s final report, which is set to expire at midnight Monday.
Smith—who has already resigned from the DOJ—has drafted a final report on his investigations into Trump, with one volume on his case against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, and one volume on the separate case regarding Trump’s alleged withholding of White House documents.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week the report can be released, but Cannon’s earlier order said the ruling shouldn’t be released until three days after the appeals court order, and the 11th Circuit kept that provision in place.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has previously said he only intends to publicly release the volume of the report covering the election case, and does not want to make the documents case volume public while Trump’s co-defendants still face prosecution in the case.
Cannon sided with the government and said the volume covering the federal election case can be released, as the government argued she couldn’t keep it hidden since it concerns a totally different case than the one she oversaw.
The judge declined to issue a ruling on releasing the volume covering the documents case, however—which the DOJ only wants to make available to certain members of Congress and not release publicly—and scheduled a hearing for Friday to consider whether she should allow the documents case to stay hidden even to lawmakers.
What To Watch For
Cannon’s ruling means the Justice Department should be able to release the volume of Smith’s report covering the 2020 election case any time after midnight. There’s a chance it could be released quicker if the 11th Circuit throws out Cannon’s order from last week that delayed the report’s release—which the DOJ has asked it to do—though it’s unlikely, as Trump’s lawyers still haven’t responded to the DOJ’s request, and that’s required before the court can issue a ruling. Trump or his co-defendants in the documents case could also go to the Supreme Court Monday to try and seek a last-minute ruling blocking the report from being made public. If the Supreme Court were to delay the report’s release, that could mean it would never be made public—even if justices ultimately ruled it could be—if the legal battle gets drawn out past Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20. If the report still hasn’t been released by that point, it would be up to Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, to decide whether Smith’s report should be released publicly—which she’s unlikely to do, given its criticism of the president-elect.
What’s In Jack Smith’s Final Report?
It’s unclear what Smith’s final report will say beyond explaining his prosecutorial decisions—though it’s possible it could include some bombshells. Trump’s lawyers have said in court filings the report is critical of the president-elect and potential members of his incoming administration, and alleged it “involves evidence that was never released to the public.” While it’s unclear what that new evidence could be, many details in Smith’s case against Trump over the 2020 election have already been made public through court filings, especially as Smith detailed his case against the ex-president in a lengthy filing released in October. Smith alleges Trump acted unlawfully in his wide-ranging efforts to overturn the 2020 election and pushed false claims about election fraud despite knowing they were untrue. Trump and his allies made up their election fraud claims “out of whole cloth,” prosecutors alleged, and allegedly planned to declare victory even before the election took place. Prosecutors also detailed Trump’s alleged actions during the Jan. 6 riot, claiming the then-president watched the attack on television from the White House dining room and expressed little concern about then-Vice President Mike Pence’s safety, after he unsuccessfully pressured Pence to block the election results from being certified. “So what?” Trump allegedly told an aide after being told Pence had to be moved to a secure location.
Key Background
Smith resigned from the Justice Department Friday after completing his final report, the DOJ said in a court filing Saturday. The debate over the final report’s release began last week, as Trump’s co-defendants in the documents case, Walter Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, asked Cannon to block the report from being publicly released because they feared it would hurt the prosecution against them. Smith and the DOJ dismissed its two pending federal criminal cases against Trump, citing the agency’s policy not to prosecute sitting presidents, but the prosecution against Nauta and de Oliveira remains ongoing. Trump also separately sent a letter to Garland asking him not to release the final report. Cannon sided with Trump’s co-defendants and blocked the report from being released publicly until the 11th Circuit ruled on the issue, which the appeals court soon did. Nauta and de Oliveira then asked Cannon over the weekend to extend her order delaying the report’s release, and her ruling Monday denying their request—at least as it applies to the volume on the election case—comes after the judge appeared to be considering siding with them over the weekend. She asked DOJ to explain how much of the volume on the election case concerned the documents case, and prosecutors said there were only two brief references to the documents litigation in the volume, which they argued wasn’t enough to give Cannon any reason to block it. Cannon has come under fire from the left and legal experts for being overly deferential to Trump in how she’s handled the documents case, and the litigation is with the appeals court after Cannon dismissed the charges in July.
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