Judge Aileen Cannon gave Attorney General Merrick Garland the green light on Monday to release special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his 2020 election subversion case against President-elect Donald Trump.
Cannon’s decision means Garland can release the report as soon as Tuesday after a week’s worth of legal wrangling left the public’s access to it in question.
Smith, who resigned from the DOJ after completing his final report last week, broke up the document into two volumes, corresponding to the two criminal cases he brought against Trump.
Cannon said that while the first volume, which concerns Smith’s case related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, could become public, the second volume must temporarily remain under wraps. That volume pertains to the classified documents case in Florida, and Cannon scheduled a hearing for Friday to listen to arguments about its release.
Smith terminated the classified documents case against Trump when he won the presidential election but left open the charges against Trump’s two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. The co-defendants had fought in court to suppress the entirety of Smith’s report, arguing it would be prejudicial to their case.
Trump’s attorneys filed an amicus brief in support of Nauta and De Oliveira and made a direct demand to Garland last week to withhold Smith’s two-volume document, saying they felt it was a “partisan weapon” that would unlawfully interfere with Trump’s transition into the White House.
Trump’s attorneys, led by his deputy attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, had been able to review a draft of both volumes of the report in Washington a week ago and hinted at some of the contents of the report in their letter to Garland.
They said Smith included “pathetically transparent” criticisms of X and attacks on Trump’s incoming administration officials in the report and that he did not afford Trump a presumption of innocence.
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Federal regulation requires special counsels to compile confidential reports explaining their prosecutorial decisions, and attorneys general have discretion over whether to make the reports public. Garland has maintained that he wants the public to be able to access the first volume but that he only wants to show top House and Senate Judiciary committee members the second volume while the case against Nauta and De Oliveira remains pending.
Nauta and De Oliveira could attempt to challenge Cannon’s latest decision at a higher court, which could install more roadblocks for Garland and a dwindling number of days for the attorney general to overcome them before Trump takes office.
