United States District Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida temporarily blocked the Justice Department from releasing any report by special counsel Jack Smith about the investigations involving President-elect Donald Trump.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to oversee investigations into allegations surrounding Trump’s efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election and retention of classified material by the president-elect in November 2022. Federal prosecutors said that Garland could approve a two-volume report as early as Friday, according to CBS News.
JUST IN
Judge Aileen Cannon has ordered a temporarily block on releasing the Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report.
This will block the Department of Injustice from releasing the report until the legal battle plays out. pic.twitter.com/FIFCo1oPWw
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) January 7, 2025
Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, argued that Smith did not have the authority to compile the report, Just the News reported.
Cannon previously found that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional under the appointments clause of the Constitution in a 93-page ruling released in July that dismissed the charges against Trump in the classified documents case.
Trump’s attorneys asked Garland not to release the report Monday, arguing that the incoming administration should make the decision and that releasing it would interfere with the presidential transition.
Smith unsealed a superseding indictment on July 27, 2023, that included charges against De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate owned by Trump, after the special counsel initially secured a 37-count indictment against Trump and Nauta in June 2023.
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