Judge Blocks Jack Smith Report Release 02/24 06:17

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Monday permanently barred the release 
of a report by special counsel Jack Smith on his investigation into President 
Donald Trump's hoarding of classified documents, a prosecution that was once 
seen as the most perilous of the four criminal cases the Republican faced.

   U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, 
granted a request from the president to keep under wraps the report on an 
investigation alleging that Trump stored sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago 
estate after he left the White House following his first term and that he 
obstructed government efforts to get them back.

   Smith and his team produced a two-volume report on the classified documents 
investigation and a separate probe into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 
presidential election after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Both investigations 
produced indictments that were abandoned by Smith's team after Trump's November 
2024 election win in light of longstanding Justice Department legal opinions 
that say sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.

   Attorney General Pam Bondi had already determined that the report was "an 
internal deliberative communication that is privileged and confidential and 
should not be released" outside the Justice Department, according to court 
papers. The Trump administration has characterized Smith's investigation as 
politically motivated and said in recent court papers that the report belongs 
in the "dustbin of history."

   Cannon's order blocking the release also applies to Bondi's successors at 
the Justice Department. Cannon, who in 2024 dismissed the case after concluding 
that Smith was unlawfully appointed after multiple other favorable rulings for 
Trump, said the release of the report would present a "manifest injustice" to 
the president and his two co-defendants.

   "Special Counsel Smith, acting without lawful authority, obtained an 
indictment in this action and initiated proceedings that resulted in a final 
order of dismissal of all charges," she wrote. "As a result, the former 
defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still 
enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order."

   A First Amendment group and a watchdog organization have been pressing for 
the report's release.

   Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, said it "will 
continue using every tool available to force this information into the open and 
to defend the public's right to the truth through the release of this report."

   Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at The Knight First Amendment Institute at 
Columbia University -- another group pushing for the report's public release -- 
said "there is no legitimate basis for its continued suppression."

   "Judge Cannon's decision to permanently block the release of this 
extraordinarily significant report is impossible to square with the First 
Amendment and the common law," Wilkens said in an emailed statement.

   A lawyer for Trump, Kendra Wharton, praised Cannon's ruling, saying in a 
statement that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed and that his report 
"should never see the light of day."

   Cannon wrote that though it is true that special counsels have historically 
released reports at the conclusion of their work, they have done so either 
after electing not to bring charges in a particular case or "after 
adjudications of guilt by plea or trial." Though Cannon suggested that an 
adjudication of guilt typically precedes the release of a special counsel 
report, there have been instances in which defendants charged by a special 
counsel have been acquitted at trial and the allegations against them have 
nonetheless been subsequently rehashed in a publicly released report.

   The classified documents case was once considered the most serious of the 
four criminal cases against him. It accused Trump of repeatedly enlisting aides 
and lawyers to help him hide records demanded by investigators and cavalierly 
showing off a Pentagon "plan of attack" and classified map.

   The first volume of Smith's report on Trump's 2020 election interference 
case was released last year shortly before Trump returned to the White House. 
Smith has defended his decision to bring those charges, saying he believes they 
would have resulted in a conviction had voters not elected Trump in 2024.

   Cannon last year granted a defense request to at least temporarily halt the 
release of the report dealing with the classified documents case. That edict 
meant that Smith could not discuss the substance of that investigation when he 
testified last month before the House Judiciary Committee.