Special counsel Jack Smith has completed his reports on his criminal investigations into Donald Trump and resigned from the Department of Justice.
Smith — a chief prosecutor at The Hague who was appointed to handle investigations into the president-elect for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and withhold classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago compound — delivered his final reports to Attorney General Merrick Garland on January 7.
He then “separated” from the Justice Department on Friday, prosecutors revealed in a court filing on Saturday.
Justice Department lawyers are urging a Trump-appointed federal judge to reject attempts from the former president and his now-former co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case to keep Smith’s report secret.
An order from Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon has temporarily blocked the release of the entire two-volume report, including the results of his investigation into Trump’s election subversion — a case that played out in an entirely different court in Washington, D.C.
After months of delays, appeals and Supreme Court decisions that bought Trump time and broad “immunity” from criminal prosecution, the cases were ultimately upended by Trump’s victory against Kamala Harris, throwing the courts and the Justice Department into unprecedented territory that brushed up against policy that prevents the prosecution of a sitting president.
The Justice Department has agreed that Garland will not publicly release Smith’s report on the classified documents investigation while the case against Trump’s co-defendants remains pending, according to federal prosecutors.
This is a developing story