A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his dual criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, in an unsigned order, barred Attorney General Merrick Garland, Smith, or any Justice Department officials from publishing the comprehensive details about Smith’s prosecutions of Trump.
The order will only remain in effect until three days after the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rules whether Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
Smith unsealed two indictments against the former president two years ago: first, in southern Florida in June 2023, for allegedly hoarding classified documents after leaving office; second, in Washington, DC, in August 2023, for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
Cannon dismissed Smith’s classified documents case before the election last year, ruling that Smith had been improperly appointed by Garland without congressional approval.
But two co-defendants — the president-elect’s valet Walt Nauta and an employee at his Palm Beach, Fla., resort, Carlos De Oliveira — remain on the docket.
Their attorneys made an emergency appeal to the federal appeals court to stop Smith from transmitting the report and Garland from releasing it.
“It is time for Joe Biden and Merrick Garland to do the right thing and put a final stop to the political weaponization of our Justice system,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Tuesday.
“The American People elected President Trump with a historic and overwhelming mandate, and we look forward to uniting our country in the new Administration as President Trump makes America great again.”
Cannon said her order was meant “[t]o preserve the status quo as this Court awaits resolution by the Eleventh Circuit of the similar Emergency Motion, to prevent irreparable harm arising from the circumstances as described in the current record in this emergency posture, and to permit an orderly and deliberative sequence of events.”
She also directed that a copy of it to be sent to Smith, Garland, US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe and the clerk for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
