Trump’s Mar-a-Lago judge just made sure Jack Smith’s final report won’t see the light of day
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Judge Aileen Cannon is blocking top lawmakers from privately viewing a report on the classified documents case. She also criticized the Justice Department under now-former Attorney General Merrick Garland, arguing that efforts to release the report “do not reflect well” on prosecutors.
![[Jack Smith resigned as special counsel on January 10 after submitting his two-volume report on his investigations into Donald Trump, who had promised to fire him if his work continued into his administration]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/21/18/2025-01-11T212701Z_1859671672_RC2WF1A65PHZ_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-SMITH.jpg)
Cannon also suggested there was no reason for lawmakers to review the contents of the report, and no “historical practice” for special counsel reports to be submitted to Congress “even on a limited basis.”. “In fact, there is not one instance of this happening until now,” she wrote.
She said there is a “reasonable likelihood” that the report would be leaked publicly, if handed over to members of Congress, “given the very strong public interest” in the case against the president. Cannon said the report contained “detailed and voluminous” information that had not been publicly shared over the course of the years-long investigation, “including interview transcripts, search warrant materials, business records, toll records, video footage” and other records obtained through grand jury subpoenas.
The report followed Smith’s post-election decision to end the two mammoth criminal cases against the president after a years-long attempt to prosecute Trump for 44 crimes spelled out in hundreds of pages of evidence. Neither case made it to trial. A federal grand jury indictment in 2023 charged Trump with conspiracy and obstruction for his efforts to reverse his election loss and his failure to stop a mob of his supporters from breaking into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, as lawmakers convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory.
