By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-07 16:07:11 | Updated at 2025-01-08 14:38:57
22 hours ago
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.
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.
FILE - Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at an office of the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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 unprededented 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.
