News

This is another incredible unforced error.

President-elect Donald Trump and his former co-defendants in the Florida classified documents case launched an effort Monday to block the release of a final report by special counsel Jack Smith that also addresses the election interference case.

Both cases against Trump have been dismissed.

Lawyers for defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira filed a motion Monday night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block Smith, who prosecuted the case, from issuing his report.

And

Trump’s lawyers said they reviewed a two-volume draft copy of Smith’s report at the special counsel’s office in Washington, D.C., over the weekend.

The special counsel’s office is required under Justice Department regulations to provide a confidential report to Garland, who can choose to make it public.

So the cases against Trump were dismissed. There was no pending litigation or prosecution.

And then, for god knows what reason, the Justice department let Trump's lawyers - Trump, a private citizen, not engaged in court action any longer on the matter - review the full report. Trump's lawyers then went crying to their pet judge, Aileen Cannon, who almost certainly will issue an unconstitutional and superfluous injunction without a case pending. That will cause appeals, which will run out the clock until Trump is president and completely kills and buries the report.

DOJ, Smith and Garland: You should have just released the report. You have no duty to Trump. Your duty is to the American people. A GOP administration would have done it and let the courts sort it out. Play just as hard - release it and let Trump fight about it in court after it's released - he wouldn't have at that point. You can still do it before Cannon rules, but you just squandered your ability to do this quickly and cleanly.

Edit: Cannon did exactly as expected, blocking the release of the report:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/06/politics/trump-smith-special-counsel-final-report/index.html

The report appears to confirm Trump's criminal activities and also apparently that Trump's lawyers (who are unnamed people who are going to be appointed to the DOJ) were given a courtesy viewing to allow them to litigate - completely unnecessarily:

The attorneys, two of whom have been selected by Trump for top Justice Department roles in the new administration, asked for advance notice of the report’s release so that they can “take appropriate legal action.”

In the court filings, the defense lawyers said that the government allowed them “limited-access” review of the draft over the weekend and that it “revealed a one-sided narrative arguing that the Defendants committed the crimes charged in this case.”