DOJ says it plans to release only part of special counsel's Trump report for now

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday it intends to release special counsel Jack Smith's findings on Donald Trump's efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election but will keep under wraps for now the rest of the report focused on the president-elect's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The revelation was made in a filing to a federal appeals court that considered a defense request to block the release of the two-volume report while charges remain pending against two Trump co-defendants in the Florida case accusing the Republican former president and current president-elect of illegally holding classified documents. Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge presiding over the classified documents case, granted the request Tuesday, issuing a temporary block on the report.

The Justice Department said it would proceed with plans to release the first of two volumes centered on the election interference case but would make the classified documents section of the report available only to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for their private review as long as the case against Trump’s co-defendants — Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira — is ongoing. "This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendants' interests," the filing said. President-elect Donald Trump speaks Tuesday during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla.



The announcement lessens the likelihood that the report on the classified documents investigation, which of all inquiries against Trump once seemed to carry the greatest legal threat, would ever be released given that the Trump Justice Department almost certainly will not make the document public even after the case against Nauta and De Oliveira is resolved. Trump repeatedly denied wrongdoing and is critical of Smith. It was not immediately clear when the election interference report might be released.

The filing asks the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse Cannon’s order that appeared to at least temporarily halt the release of the entire report.

The Justice Department asked the appeals court to undo the freeze and make clear that its “resolution of this question should be the last word,” though it also acknowledged the potential that the Supreme Court might be asked to weigh in. In its brief, the Justice Department said that the attorney general's authority to publicly release the election interference section of the special counsel's report is "clear" and that Trump's co-defendants have no legal argument to block the disclosure of a section that has nothing to do with them. "Indeed, with respect to Volume One of the Final Report, defendants are hardly differently situated than any other member of the public," the department said.

The report is expected to detail findings and charging decisions in Smith's two investigations. The classified documents inquiry was dismissed in July by Cannon, who concluded that Smith's appointment was illegal. Smith's appeal of the dismissal of charges against Nauta and 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.

Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media Aug. 1, 2023, about an indictment of former President Donald Trump at the Department of Justice in Washington. 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. Smith's team abandoned both cases in November after Trump's presidential win, citing Justice Department policy that prohibits the federal prosecutions of sitting presidents. 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 Russian election interference investigation. The court request from De Oliveira and Nauta to block the report also included a letter from Trump's legal team, including Todd Blanche, his pick for deputy attorney general, that made similar points and used language that echoed some of Trump's own attacks on Smith and his work.

Blanche told Garland that the "release of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the huge sums of taxpayer money Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases." Boxes of records are stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., seen in this image contained in an indictment charging him with 37 felonies related to the mishandling of classified documents.

The indictment paints an unmistakably damning portrait of Trump’s treatment of sensitive information, accusing him of willfully defying Justice Department demands to return documents he had taken from the White House, enlisting aides in his efforts to hide the records and even telling his lawyers he wanted to defy a subpoena for the materials stored in his estate. This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records on Dec. 7, 2021, in a storage room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

, that had fallen over with contents spilling onto the floor. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023. This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records being stored on the stage in the White and Gold Ballroom at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023. This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records that had been stored in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., after they were moved to a storage room on June 24, 2021.

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records that had been stored in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., after they were moved to a storage room on June 24, 2021. Boxes of records seen in a storage room at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

, that were photographed on Nov. 12, 2021. Pages from the affidavit by the FBI in support of obtaining a search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate are photographed Aug.

26, 2022. U.S.

Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the Justice Department to make public a redacted version of the affidavit it relied on when federal agents searched Trump's estate to look for classified documents. A page from a FBI property list of items seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and made public by the Department of Justice, are photographed Friday, Sept. 2, 2022.

FBI agents who searched the home found empty folders marked with classified banners. The inventory reveals in general terms the contents of the 33 boxes taken during the Aug. 8 search.

Pages from a FBI property list of items seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and made public by the Department of Justice, are photographed Sept. 2, 2022. The indictment against former President Donald Trump is photographed on Friday, June 9, 2023.

Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to the unsealed indictment that also alleges that he improperly shared a Pentagon "plan of attack" and a classified map related to a military operation. The indictment against former President Donald Trump is photographed on Friday, June 9, 2023. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to the unsealed indictment that also alleges that he improperly shared a Pentagon "plan of attack" and a classified map related to a military operation.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter..