Attorney General Merrick Garland submitted a court filing Wednesday announcing his intention to release part of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump relating to the 2020 election.
“The Attorney General intends to release Volume One to Congress and the public consistent with 28 C.F.R. § 600.9(c) and in furtherance of the public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter,” the filing reads.
However, the filing includes the caveat that a second installment of the report—which includes Smith’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents—will not be available to the public as long as Trump’s co-defendants, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, remain in criminal proceedings.
Trump faced two separate federal indictments: The first included four counts connected to his attempt to steal the 2020 election, and the second included 40 felony counts associated with the mishandling of classified documents—31 of which were brought under the Espionage Act.
Garland’s court filing comes one day after the Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily blocked the report’s release and two days after Trump’s lawyers sent an overwrought and convoluted letter to the attorney general threatening legal action if he were to release any of the report.
Cannon tried to dismiss Trump’s classified documents case in July. Smith appealed the decision but moved to have all charges against Trump dismissed shortly after the 2024 election, citing a 2000 opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel, which asserted that sitting presidents cannot be indicted or prosecuted.
Unfortunately, Garland’s decision leaves it up to Trump’s incoming Department of Justice to make a final decision on whether or not to release the second report.
Considering there is a high likelihood that Trump’s DOJ will drop the cases against his co-defendants, maybe Smith should have also dropped his cases against them, allowing Biden’s DOJ to release the entire report for public consumption.
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