Judge Blocks Release of Special Counsel’s Trump Report

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the release of a report prepared by special counsel Jack Smith in relation to President-elect Donald Trump’s dismissed case involving classified documents in Florida.

On Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order preventing the Justice Department from making the two-volume report public while ongoing legal proceedings continue. Prosecutors had previously indicated that the document could be released as soon as Friday, depending on a decision from Attorney General Merrick Garland.

This latest legal development follows an emergency motion filed earlier in the day by attorneys for Trump’s former codefendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira. The motion, similar to one they had filed previously in Cannon’s court, urged the appeals court to block the report’s release.

Cannon’s ruling effectively pauses the release until at least three days after the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals resolves the emergency motion, unless the appeals court decides otherwise. This means the final decision on whether the report can be made public now rests with the appeals court.

This legal tug-of-war comes less than two weeks before Trump’s second presidential inauguration, with the special counsel’s investigation approaching its conclusion ahead of the new administration taking office. Smith has overseen two significant cases against Trump: the classified documents case in Florida and a separate investigation related to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which have since been dismissed.

While the classified documents case remains active in the appeals court, prosecutors are seeking to overturn Cannon’s previous ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Though Smith dismissed the case against Trump, he chose to keep the appeal moving forward concerning his codefendants.

Cannon’s order on Tuesday clarified that she was not making a determination on whether the special counsel’s report should be released; instead, she left that decision to the appeals court.

Neither the Justice Department nor Smith’s office has commented on Cannon’s latest order.