Appeals court denies bid to block public release of special counsel's report on Trump Jan. 6 probe

[January 10, 2025]  By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a bid to block the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a emergency challenge aimed at keeping under wraps the report expected to detail unflattering revelations about Trump’s failed effort to cling to power in the election he lost to President Joe Biden.

A separate volume of the same special counsel report — related to Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — will not become public while the case against two co-defendants of the president-elect remains pending, the Justice Department has said.

Even with the appeals court ruling, though, the election interference report will not immediately be released, and there's no guarantee it will be as more legal wrangling is expected. A lower court ruling from Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida temporarily blocking the Justice Department from releasing the report remains in place for three days.

The defendants may now ask Cannon to rule on the merits of their request to block the report, which she did not do earlier when she granted their emergency motion. They could also conceivably ask the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to intervene.

A Trump spokesperson called Smith's report an “unconstitutional, one-sided, falsehood-ridden screed."

“It is time for Joe Biden and Merrick Garland to do the right thing and put a final stop to the political weaponization of our Justice system,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement after the ruling.

The two-volume report is expected to detail findings and explain charging decisions in Smith’s two investigations, though the prospect for significant new information is unclear given the extensive details already disclosed in separate indictments against Trump.

Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at an office of the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Smith’s team abandoned both cases in November after Trump’s presidential election victory, citing Justice Department policy that prohibits the federal prosecutions of sitting presidents.

The case accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate was dismissed in July by Cannon, who concluded that Smith’s appointment was illegal. Smith’s appeal of the dismissal of charges against Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were charged alongside Trump with obstructing the investigation, is still active, and their lawyers argued this week that the release of a report while proceedings were pending would be prejudicial and unfair.

The Justice Department's decision to withhold the classified documents section of the report for now lessens the likelihood it will ever been seen by the public, given that the Trump Justice Department almost certainly will not release it even after the case against Nauta and De Oliveira is resolved.

The election interference case was significantly narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. The court ruled then for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, all but ending prospects Trump could be tried before the November election.

Justice Department regulations call for special counsels appointed by the attorney general to submit a confidential report at the conclusion of their investigations. It’s then up to the attorney general to decide what to make public.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has made public in their entirety the reports produced by special counsels who operated under his watch, including Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information and John Durham’s report on the FBI’s investigation of Russian election interference.

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