A federal judge has permanently blocked the release of a report detailing former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. The ruling, made by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, found that releasing the report would be a “manifest injustice” to Trump and two associates.
WASHINGTON − A federal judge permanently blocked the Justice Department from releasing former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his criminal case accusing former President Donald Trump of mishandling classified documents he took with him following his first term in office and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, on Feb. 23 found that any public release of the report would be a “manifest injustice” to Trump and two associates because it would detail allegations of alleged criminal wrongdoing in a case that was dismissed before ever going to trial.
The ruling is the latest in a series of decisions by Cannon to protect Trump from having the contents of the case made public.
In July 2024, Cannon ruled that Smith’s appointment as special counsel under the administration of President Joe Biden was unconstitutional and dismissed the case.
The Biden Justice Department appealed that decision but ultimately dropped the case and another charging Trump with unlawfully trying to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential election, after Trump was elected to a second term last November. In both, Smith cited a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Citing her 2024 dismissal of the case, Cannon said in her current ruling that Smith was acting “without lawful authority” in obtaining the indictment against Trump, valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos de Oliveira.
“As a result, the former defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order,” Cannon wrote in her new order.
Cannon’s move means the American public may never see the substantial amount of evidence gathered by prosecutors in one of the four criminal cases Trump faced in his years out of office.
Trump was accused of illegally storing documents related to U.S. national security and defense at his Mar-a-Lago estate and social club and then obstructing U.S. government efforts to retrieve the material.
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