WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said in a filing Wednesday that Special Counsel Jack Smith has given Attorney General Merrick Garland the final report on his two investigations that led to felony criminal charges against President-elect Donald Trump. Garland plans to release a portion of the report.
After Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily barred the release of the report on Trump’s handling of secret documents, the Justice Department filed the lawsuit independently of Smith’s office. The Florida judge, Cannon, sided with the claim that Smith’s appointment was unlawful and dismissed the allegations against Trump.
However, the Justice Department stated on Wednesday that there was “neither any need nor legal basis for an injunction” on the report’s release because Garland only plans to provide Congress with volume one of the report, which focuses on Trump’s attempts to rig the 2020 election, “in furtherance of the public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter.” However, as long as the trials against Trump’s codefendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira are still pending, Garland will not make volume two of the report available to the public.
“For the time being, Volume Two will be made available for in camera review only by the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees upon their request and agreement not to release any information from Volume Two publicly,” lawyers from the Justice Department said. “This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendants interests.”
Along with the public release of the volume on Trump’s election interference case, Justice Department lawyers requested that the federal appeals court “make clear that there is no impediment to the Attorney General allowing for limited congressional review” of the volume of the report on Trump’s classified documents case.
In addition, the Justice Department is requesting that the 11th Circuit lift Cannon’s interim injunction, which prevents the release of any section of the report for three days after the circuit’s decision. Theoretically, Trump would have three days to ask the Supreme Court to step in and prevent the publication of volume one of the report. Volume one might be revealed at any time after that if the circuit grants DOJ’s request and reverses Cannon’s ruling.
For her persistent support of Trump in the case, including her choice to drop the charges against him, Cannon has come under fire. She has been accused of acting without legal justification for some of her rulings, notably how she handled a search of his Florida home.
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