Trump lawyers scramble to block ‘imminent’ release of Jack Smith’s report on criminal charges
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Lawyers for Trump and his former co-defendants take action to shut down report on probe into classified documents cache and election interference. The cases have been dropped against Trump, but charges relating to alleged obstruction continue against his one-time co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
![[Special Counsel Jack Smith]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/11/26/23/2184138256.jpg)
Trump’s lawyers on Monday sent an emailed letter calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop Smith from releasing the report, and to fire Smith immediately. “Accordingly, because Smith has proposed an unlawful course of action, you must countermand his plan and remove him promptly. If Smith is not removed, then the handling of his report should be deferred to President Trump’s incoming attorney general, consistent with the expressed will of the People,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blance and John Lauro wrote in the letter.
Smith had planned to resign sometime before Trump’s January 20 inauguration. The attorneys noted that they had a brief opportunity to review a two-volume draft of the report over the weekend in Smith’s office in Washington D.C. They wrote that the report described Trump’s efforts to upend the 2020 election as an “unprecedented criminal effort,” and that Trump, “the head of the criminal conspiracies,” harbored a “criminal design.”.
The lawyers argued that releasing the final report would violate the Presidential Transition Act and Presidential Immunity Doctrine. They also argued that Smith was not appointed to his position “validly” and therefore can’t issue a report, and that the report “violates fundamental norms regarding the presumption of innocence.”.
