A federal judge has cleared the way for the Justice Department to release the portion of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
But U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is continuing to prohibit DOJ from showing selected lawmakers another part of Smith’s report that covers his probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Cannon ordered a hearing on that issue Friday in her courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has indicated he plans to publicly release the volume of Smith’s report detailing his election-related investigation, which led to grave criminal conspiracy charges against Trump. Cannon’s Monday order means that, barring intervention by a higher court, that volume could become public as soon as Tuesday.
The Justice Department, meanwhile, has indicated it will not publicly release the other volume of Smith’s report, on the documents case, because the department is seeking to revive charges in that case against two of Trump’s former co-defendants. The department, though, wants to confidentially share that volume with leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.