By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-08 19:30:25 | Updated at 2025-01-09 10:14:06
14 hours ago
The Justice Department revealed it intends to release Jack Smith's report on the decision to charge Donald Trump with a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election – but will sit on a separate volume on Trump's classified documents case.
The decision came in a court filing Wednesday, after lawyers for two Trump codefendants persuaded Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon to block the release of the volume of Smith's report pertaining to their case before her.
The move could make public a trove of information on Trump just before he retakes office, while burying other information about government documents that ended up at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump was charged with willful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, in a case Cannon dismissed this summer that was on appeal when Trump won the November election.
Trump's team has also asked an appeals court to block the release of the entire two-volume report.
Legal filings reveal that Smith, the special counsel, accuses Trump of being 'the head of the criminal conspiracies,' and his footnotes indicate the combined reports run beyond 200 pages.
Trump's team argue that the report, under DOJ regulations, merely spews 'conspiracy theories,' and say it is unfair to release it, saying it violates his presumption of innocence. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to attack Jack Smith publicly.
DOJ said the volume on the classified documents case would be provided to key members of Congress for both parties for private review in redacted form. 'This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendant´s interests,' DOJ wrote.
Once Trump takes office January 20th, his own Justice Department will get to make determinations on whether the report on the classified documents case ever gets released. Trump has repeatedly called the prosecutions against him 'witch hunts.'
He has nominated loyalist former Florida AG Pam Bondi to lead the agency.
Both of Trump's codefendants in the case, longtime valet Waltine Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, have been in his longtime employ. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges against them.
'They brought this moron out of The Hague. He's a mean guy,' Trump said of special counsel Jack Smith. The Justice Department said it will release Smith's report on the January 6th case. A separate volume on the classified documents case may never see daylight
Trump unloaded on 'nasty guy' Jack Smith as his team tries to stop the special counsel from releasing the damning report.
Smith has been trying to get clearance from Attorney General Merrick Garland to release a two-part volume into Trump's alleged misconduct related to his handling of classified documents and attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.
Neither of Smith's cases against Trump reached trial and the president-elect has fiercely maintained his innocence during the 'political' prosecution.
Trump's team is pleading in court that Garland halt the release of the report that they say just spews 'conspiracy theories' about the incoming president.
The last-minute court battle came as Trump asked the Supreme Court to stop his sentencing in his hush money case.
The president-elect also made a series of personal jabs at Smith on Tuesday calling him 'mean and nasty' and accusing him of executing people.
'They brought this moron out of The Hague. He's a mean guy. He's a mean, nasty guy,' Trump said, referring to Smith's prior assignment prosecuting war crimes at the Hague.
Trump tore into the special counsel during an hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago where he also refused to rule out military force to obtain Greenland and regain control of the Panama Canal.
'[Smith's] picture was perfect, because you look at his picture, you say that's a bad guy with his robe – his purple robe – and he executes people. He shouldn't be allowed to execute people, because he'll execute everybody. He's a nutjob. But we won all of those cases with him.'
He went on praise 'brilliant' Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida who ruled that Smith's special counsel appointment was unlawful last year.
Smith himself asked that the January 6 case against Trump be withdrawn after he defeated Kamala Harris in the election. Prosecutors also stood down in the classified documents case, where they were appealing a district judge's order to dismiss the case.
'And some judges and prosecutors say, look, the only way I'm going to get these people off my back is to give victory to them,' said Trump.
'They're playing the ref. I think it's illegal what they do ... It's worse than talking to a judge. But the judge in Florida, Judge Cannon, was brilliant and tough, and she didn't stand for it. And I don't know her – and never met her until the case – and I don't believe I said even one word to her,' Trump said.
The Netherlands, where Smith prosecuted war crimes cases at the Hague, does not have the death penalty. He did get a death penalty conviction for a cop killer in New York.
Trump's comments came as there was more courtroom drama in the final days before Donald Trump is sworn in as president, with Trump's lawyers racing to try to get a judge to prevent Jack Smith from releasing a two-volume report on his historic charging decisions.
Those cases have been upended, but material in the special counsel's report could damage the incoming administration just as it is trying to get underway after what Trump's lawyers call a 'national mandate from the voters.'
Smith plans to hand the report to AG Merrick Garland Tuesday afternoon – with a potential release as early as Friday, just days before Trump takes the Oath of Office and assumes control over the Justice Department whose prosecutors brought criminal charges against him.
Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche – who Trump is nominating to a top DOJ role – claim in a blistering letter to Garland that the draft report is a 'politically-motivated attack.'
They call it the product of a 'bad-faith crusade', and claim Smith lacks the authority to produce it, and that it 'violates fundamental norms regarding the presumption of innocence,' including toward third parties charged alongside Trump.
Trump brought up Smith's purple robe, which he wore as part of the uniform prosecuting war crimes in the Hague
They say the 'release of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the huge sums of taxpayer money Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases.'
The legal cases against Trump imploded after he won the presidential election, in part due to longstanding DOJ guidelines against charging the president while in office.
Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, accepting his lawyers' argument that Smith's appointment wasn't constitutional.
That decision was on appeal when Trump won the election in November.
The release of a major final report by a special counsel can be an explosive event. Special Counsel Robert Hur's final report on the Hunter Biden saga last spring contained damaging language calling President Joe Biden an 'elderly man with a poor memory' that reverberated through the campaign.
Trump's team says a 'one-sided, improper report' would violate the presidential immunity principles established by the Supreme Court.
They were able to view the draft report in D.C., and say its first volume 'asserts, without any jury determination, that President Trump and others 'engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,' was 'the head of the criminal conspiracies,' and harbored a 'criminal design.'
They cite page 68 and 69 of the still unseen draft report, with other citations running through page 108.
The second volume 'asserts that Trump 'violated multiple federal criminals laws,' with citations up to page 121 – suggestion a lengthy report of beyond 200 pages.
The letter faults Smith for filing 'gratuitous speaking indictments,' holding a 'lawless press conference,' and filing 'extremely serious, and entirely false, allegations' against Trump in the January 6 case and the classified documents case.
At the same time, Trump co-defendants in the documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, have asked Judge Cannon to block Garland from releasing the report, arguing it would prevent them from getting a fair trial.
Their obstruction cases continue even after Smith withdrew the government's appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Smith's team asked a judge to set aside the January 6 case, saying 'This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant'
One of the volumes in Smith's report relates to Trump's possession of national security documents to Mar-a-Lago
Trump codefendants are asking Judge Aileen Cannon to block the release of the report
Trump's lawyers are trying to shut down the release of a two-volume report by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the final days before he takes office
The lawyers blast Smith and his team 'as the inauguration approaches' of efforts to put out a report that is 'not a legitimate use of taxpayer funds,' and accuse him of 'lawfare' – a phrase invoked by Trump himself.
They accuse him of 'unlawfully' encroaching on the 'Executive authority of the incoming Administration of President Trump to resolve the issues surrounding Smith's Office in accordance with President Trump's commanding national mandate from the voters.'
Smith's team says the report could be released as soon as Friday.
The report, offered under the DOJ regulations governing special counsel probes, is expected to describe prosecutors' charging decisions in the case that resulted in Trump being indicted for taking a trove of national security documents to Mar-a-Lago.
They also include the decision to charge Trump with heading a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
Smith brought a superseding indictment in the January 6th case that narrowed the case after the Supreme Court issued issued its summer decision giving presidents presidential immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office.
Trump's team wants the AG to block the report or leave the decision to Trump's AG. Trump has said he will nominate longtime loyalist former Florida AG Pam Bondi to the post.
Smith's team filed their own filing where they spelled out a plan to submit their report to Garland Monday afternoon, and that the portion dealing with the classified documents case before Judge Cannon won't be made public before 10 am on Friday.
Weighing in Tuesday was former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), former vice of the House January 6 committee.
She accused Trump of 'yet again to hide evidence and suppress the truth. The Justice Department has obtained testimony and evidence from dozens of Trump's former advisors and Vice President Pence showing the danger Trump poses. Now Trump is already doing what despots do— he is trying to conceal the truth and threatening to jail those who investigated him.'
'AG Garland now has a duty to release the Justice Department Report and prevent its evidence from being destroyed. The truth must prevail. The framers of our Constitution knew the lessons of history — that people led by men without character can quickly lose their freedom,' she posted on X.
She also said Rep. Barry Loudermilk spread 'malicious lies' about the House January 6 Committee, in reference to his report saying numerous laws were 'likely broken' and calling for an FBI probe of alleged 'criminal witness tampering.'
