January 7, 2025
We may not be seeing Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on the Trump classified documents case or the election interference case any time soon. That’s because the same judge who dismissed Trump’s classified documents cased down in Florida just temporarily blocked the release of Smith’s report to the public.
Now – let me just back up and explain what this means.
First – you should know – that by law all special counsels are required to produce a report explaining their legal decisions and the conclusions of their investigation regardless of the outcome of that investigation whether they win in court or lose in court or it goes away. But it’s up to the attorney general to decide whether that report is released to the public. And they usually do release it. Sometimes it gets redacted but generally we get to see something. That’s why special counsel Robert Hur issued that report on President Biden and AG Merrick Garland released it – you remember – the report where Hur said Biden was an elderly man with a poor memory? The only reason why we saw that was because Hur produced the report according to the law and garland released it to the public. And I could go on about all the special counsel reports that have been released publicly under multiple presidential administrations.
Well – like all other special counsels – Jack Smith prepared a report on the Trump classified documents case and the Trump election interference case and AG Garland was preparing to release the report in the coming days. But in a late night filing last night the other co-defendants in Trump’s classified documents case Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira asked the federal judge in Florida Aileen Cannon to block the release of the report. Why? Two reasons. One because they say releasing that report will cause them irreparable injury and two– because they argue Cannon already ruled that Jack Smith was not appointed lawfully so therefore does not have the authority to produce a report like this. Their filing also includes a letter from the Trump legal team that argues releasing Smith’s report publicly was in violation of Trump’s presidential immunity and that the report is “obviously not in the public interest.”
Today – Nauta and de Olivera filed an emergency appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals asking them to also stop the release of the Smith report. In the meantime – this afternoon Judge Cannon in Florida issued this order saying that AG Merrick Garland is blocked from releasing the smith report until three days after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals makes a decision. Now – the appeals court may rule that there’s nothing wrong and the report can be released in which case Cannon’s order disappears. Or they will rule – there is a problem for some reason and it needs to stay in the shadows.
Which leaves one stone unturned and that is – what about Jack Smith. Yes – Judge Cannon dismissed the Trump classified documents case but not because Trump was innocent of the charges – she ruled she was dismissing it because in her opinion, the way Smith was appointed was unconstitutional. The fact is no other federal judge in history has come to that same conclusion. In fact we had three special counsels in the Biden administration – one to investigate Trump, one to investigate Biden and one to investigate Hunter Biden. All were appointed the exact same way which is the same way all special counsels have always been appointed. But only smith’s appointment is considered unconstitutional because of cannon’s ruling.
So now – that ruling is just hanging out there with no resolution. Does this mean that from now on all special counsels are unconstitutional? Will Trump’s attorney general not be able to appoint a special counsel in the next four years? Or will the 11th circuit weigh in and overturn Cannon’s ruling? We’ll see what they say.
Read Judge Cannon’s ruling here.
Read Nauta and de Olieviera’s filing here.
