The Justice Department is appealing a judge's block on releasing the special counsel's Trump report, citing the urgency before his presidency.
The Justice Department has requested a federal appeals court to act promptly in reversing a judge's order that had prevented the agency from disclosing any portion of special counsel Jack Smith's investigative report concerning President-elect Donald Trump.
The emergency motion submitted late Friday represents the latest exchange in a legal disagreement over whether any section of Smith's report can be made public prior to Trump assuming office on Jan. 20. The effort to release it before Trump’s inauguration indicates concerns that the Justice Department under the Trump administration, which will include members of his personal legal team in prominent leadership positions, would be in a position to stop the report from being released.
The department is aiming to release in the coming days one section of its two-volume report that concentrates on Trump's endeavors to overturn the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The department has stated that it will not publicly disclose a separate volume — regarding Trump's retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after his departure from the White House in January 2021 — as long as criminal proceedings against two of Trump's co-defendants remain ongoing.
Both inquiries led to indictments against Trump, although Smith's team discontinued both cases in November following Trump's election victory. Smith cited Justice Department policy that prohibits the federal prosecution of a sitting president.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency defense request Thursday to block the release of the election interference report, which pertains to Trump's efforts before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to undo the results of the 2020 election. The appeals court upheld an injunction from a Trump-appointed lower court judge, Aileen Cannon, which stipulated that none of the findings could be released until three days after the matter was resolved by the appeals court.
Lawyers for Trump's co-defendants in the classified documents case, Trump aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, subsequently asked Cannon to extend her injunction and to schedule a hearing on the merits of their request to halt the release of the report.
The Justice Department responded late Friday by requesting the appeals court to immediately lift Cannon's injunction entirely. The filing noted that in addition to temporarily blocking the release of the election interference report, Cannon's action also prevents officials from privately sharing the classified documents report with the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.
Cannon's order is “plainly erroneous,” according to the department's motion.
“The Attorney General is the Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice and is vested with the authority to supervise all officers and employees of the Department," the Justice Department said. "The Attorney General thus has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates."
Justice Department regulations require special counsels to produce reports upon the conclusion of their work, and it is standard practice for such documents to be made public regardless of the subject matter.
William Barr, attorney general during Trump's initial term, released a special counsel report examining Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential connections to the Trump campaign.
Biden's attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also released special counsel reports, including one about Biden’s handling of classified information prior to Biden becoming president.