Judge blocks release of special counsel report on Trump’s criminal cases


WASHINGTON – The federal judge who oversaw the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump issued an order Tuesday temporarily blocking the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation.

The court order lasts until three days after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on a pending request to block the release of the report in a separate matter involving Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.

Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira filed a motion Monday night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the report, citing the judge’s earlier ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.

Judge Aileen Cannon and Donald Trump.USDC for the Southern District of Florida; AP file

Cannon said he was acting “to preserve the status quo” until the high court rules on the issue.

Its ruling holds that Attorney General Merrick “Garland, the Department of Justice, Special Counsel Smith, all of their officers, agents and employees, and all persons acting in concert or active participation with such individuals, are TEMPORARILY BANRED (a) release, share or transmit the Final Report or any draft of such Report outside the Department of Justice, or (b) disclose, distribute, transmit or otherwise share with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions in the Final Report or in ladies of the same.”

He said the order will remain in effect for three days after the appeals court resolves the matter “unless the Eleventh Circuit orders otherwise.”

Nauta and De Oliveira filed a separate petition asking the 11th Circuit to block the report early Tuesday.

They maintain that revealing details in the report about their alleged efforts to obstruct justice on behalf of Trump in the documents case could jeopardize their right to a fair trial.

The court gave the Justice Department until Wednesday morning to respond.

Cannon dismissed the case against Trump and the couple last year, finding Smith’s appointment illegal. Smith’s office appealed his decision, but dropped its appeal over Trump’s firing after his election victory, citing a Justice Department legal memo that maintains that the Justice Department cannot prosecute a sitting president.

Even though they are no longer charged in the case, Trump’s lawyers filed a motion with Cannon on Tuesday asking him to intervene.

“As a former president and future president, uniquely familiar with the pernicious consequences of the legal warfare perpetrated by Smith, his office and others at the Department of Justice, President Trump should be allowed to participate in these proceedings,” his filing said.

He requested that she “immediately direct Smith and his Office not to transmit any aspect of the Report to the Attorney General before the Emergency Motion is resolved.”

In a court filing, Smith said he planned to send his two-volume report to Garland on Tuesday.

Garland “has not yet determined how to handle the volume of the report related to this case, about which the parties were consulting at the time the defendants filed the motion, but the Department can commit that the Attorney General will not make public that volume. if he does,” before 10 a.m. Friday, according to the document.



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