Cannon allows for release of Smith report on Trump election interference
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday allowed the release of the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s report dealing with Donald Trump’s efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election.
In a five-page ruling, Cannon denied an effort by Trump and his two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case to block the release of both volumes of the report, noting prosecutors argued the election inference report has little to do with the ongoing trial against the two men charged alongside the president-elect.
“Based on these representations, the Court sees an insufficient basis to grant emergency injunctive relief as to Volume I,” Cannon wrote.
An earlier temporary injunction from Cannon keeps the report under wraps until Tuesday, giving Trump’s team a window to appeal her decision.
Judge Aileen Cannon Allows Release Of Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 Trump Report https://t.co/uFJFmQBCo8
— Forbes (@Forbes) January 13, 2025
However, Cannon ordered a Friday hearing on whether to release the Mar-a-Lago report, something Attorney General Merrick Garland said he planned to keep sealed from the public given the ongoing prosecution into valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos De Oliveira.
The ruling is a victory for the Justice Department, which has been pushing for the release of the report recapping the Jan. 6, 2021, investigation in two different courts.
🚨Judge Aileen Cannon clears the way for the Attorney General to publicly release the findings of Jack Smith’s investigation into 2020 election interference
Link: https://t.co/In9ttSM559
— Merissa Hansen (@merissahansen17) January 13, 2025
While the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals likewise declined to take up an emergency motion from Trump and his co-defendants, Cannon had previously agreed to temporarily bar release of both volumes of the report, keeping her order in effect for three days after any ruling from the appeals court.
Garland has said he plans to release the Jan. 6 report to the public, though it will first be transmitted to lawmakers.
Trump’s legal team wrote to Garland last week opposing its release, hinting at the content of the report.
“Volume I of the Draft Report falsely 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,’” Trump’s legal team wrote in the letter.
Those conclusions were also reached in the indictment Smith filed, though Trump had also said the report contains information about some of the people he has nominated for roles in his second administration.
Trump critics see the report as an important form of accountability after Smith, citing Justice Department policy barring prosecution of a sitting president, moved to dismiss both Trump’s criminal cases after he won reelection.
It’s unclear the extent the report will contain new evidence Smith otherwise planned to present in court.
The case will continue, however, with regard to the volume of the report dealing with the Mar-a-Lago investigation.
Garland planned to share that volume only with leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, but Nauta and De Oliveira argued lawmakers could leak the contents of the report.
Cannon will weigh that matter in the Friday hearing.
