Judge Cannon blocks release of Jack Smith's Trump classified docs report, citing potential "irreparable harm" pending 11th Circuit appeal.
The adjudicator presiding over President-elect Donald Trump's matter concerning classified documents on Tuesday provisionally impeded the issuance of special counsel Jack Smith's conclusive report in an effort to avert "irreparable harm" while the issue undergoes consideration by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
This action transpired one day following a request from Trump's former co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon -- the judge who had dismissed the classified documents matter in July after considering Smith's appointment unconstitutional -- to issue a directive prohibiting Attorney General Merrick Garland from publicly disseminating the report.
Cannon transferred the issue to the Eleventh Circuit but temporarily impeded the report's issuance "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."
Judge Cannon's directive could represent an unprecedented situation for the Justice Department, whose special counsels typically prepare reports at the conclusion of their investigations.
Cannon indicated that the directive remains effective until three days after the circuit court addresses the emergency motion, unless the circuit stipulates otherwise.
Subsequent to Cannon's directive, the circuit court instructed the Justice Department to respond to Trump's emergency motion by Wednesday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
Earlier on Tuesday, legal representatives for Nauta and De Olivera requested the Eleventh Circuit to issue a directive impeding the report's dissemination, while also suggesting the court could return the issue to Judge Cannon, an appointee of Trump with a history of rendering favorable opinions for the former president. After Cannon granted their request for an emergency directive impeding the report's issuance, Trump's legal team altered their approach and requested the Eleventh Circuit to return the matter back to Cannon.
"In light of the district court's efforts addressing this matter and the pending motion for intervention, appellees renew their alternative request that this Court order a limited remand to the district court to conduct all appropriate proceedings and rule on the claim for injunctive relief," the legal representatives stated in a filing on Tuesday afternoon.
The Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit has previously reversed Judge Cannon, unanimously reversing her directive mandating an external review of records seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate during the investigation.
While Trump's co-defendants had maintained opposition to the dissemination of the portion of the report pertaining to the classified documents matter -- and not the portion concerning Trump's election interference matter, which Smith also oversaw -- Judge Cannon's directive made reference solely to the "final report," and not the two volumes contained within, suggesting that the entire report is impeded from release.
Legal representatives for Trump had also asked Cannon to permit Trump to formally join his former co-defendants' effort to impede the report's issuance.
"As a former and soon-to-be President, uniquely familiar with the pernicious consequences of lawfare perpetrated by Smith, his Office, and others at DOJ, President Trump should be permitted to participate in these proceedings," Trump's legal representatives argued in a Tuesday morning filing.
That filing followed the special counsel's office, in response to Nauta and De Oliveira's request for Cannon to impede the report's issuance, confirming that the office is "working to finalize" a report and that Attorney General Garland -- who possesses the ultimate authority over what material from the report is made public -- has not yet determined what to release from the volume that pertains to Smith's classified documents investigation.
"This morning's Notice is the most recent example of Smith's glaring lack of respect for this Court and fundamental norms of the criminal justice system," Trump's legal representatives wrote in their filing, referencing Smith's stated intention that his office planned to transmit the report to Attorney General Merrick Garland no later than 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday.
The special counsel's office indicated to Judge Cannon in their filing that Smith would not release that specific volume of the report at any point before 10 a.m. on Friday and that they would submit a more comprehensive reply to Nauta and DeOliveira's emergency motion no later than 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening.
Trump's legal representatives also dispatched a letter to Garland insisting upon the removal of Smith from his position and the transfer of the determination regarding the report's release to Trump's incoming attorney general, Pam Bondi.
"No report should be prepared or released, and Smith should be removed, including for even suggesting that course of action given his obvious political motivations and desire to lawlessly undermine the transition," wrote Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, Trump's defense attorneys whom Trump has selected for key Justice Department roles in the incoming administration.
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors stated he persistently declined to return hundreds of documents encompassing classified information spanning from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation's defense capabilities, and engaged in measures to obstruct the government's efforts to retrieve the documents.
The former president, together with longtime aide Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to reportedly endeavoring to delete surveillance footage at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
Smith has been concluding his matters against the president-elect owing to a longstanding Department of Justice policy preventing the prosecution of a sitting president -- initiating the dismissal of Trump's federal election interference matter and abandoning his appeal of the classified documents matter -- and has been anticipated to provide a conclusive report regarding his investigations to Garland prior to stepping down.