The Justice Department on Wednesday said it will release the final report from special counsel Jack Smith on Donald Trump’s purported interference in the 2020 election but will hold off on releasing the report on the classified documents case.
“There is neither any need nor legal basis for an injunction,” the Justice Department said in a court filing. It said that since the president-elect is no longer a defendant in any special counsel prosecution, then there is no need to block the first of two volumes from coming out.
The classified documents case was dismissed in July by Judge Aileen Cannon when she found that Mr. Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. Mr. Smith vowed to appeal the decision, but once Mr. Trump was elected in November, he dropped the appeal and started to work on dismissing the 2020 election interference case that was filed in Washington.
However, the final report for the classified documents case will be withheld for as long as the case against Mr. Trump’s co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, remains pending, the filing said. A redacted version will be made available “in light of congressional interest in the work” of Mr. Smith to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees as long as they promise not to release it.
The Justice Department also said that the two co-defendants have no viable legal argument to stop the release of the report on the election interference case.
“Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira have no cognizable interest in that volume of the final report, however, nor any plausible theory of Article III standing that would justify their asking this court to grant relief with respect to it. Nor would there be any legal basis for any other interested party to seek to block release of Volume One,” the filing said.
Mr. Trump, Mr. Nauta and Mr. De Oliveira petitioned the court Monday to block the release of the reports, saying the release would “be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump.”
Judge Cannon agreed to temporarily block the release of the report while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit looks into the emergency request from Mr. Trump’s co-defendants who said the release would cause them irreparable harm.
The temporary delay in releasing the classified documents report likely means it will never come out, since the Trump Justice Department will inherit the case and will more than likely kill the case against his former co-defendants.
It was unclear when the report was set to be released.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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