Come on, Aileen!
On Tuesday, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order blocking the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s highly anticipated reports on the prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump’s classified documents case as well as his Jan. 6 election subversion case.
The injunction from Cannon stops the release of the report until the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals weighs an emergency motion to stop the report’s publication filed on Monday by two of Trump’s co-defendants in the now-dismissed classified documents case, onetime valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira.
Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira argue that publishing Smith’s report is against the public interest and is “designed to politically harm President Trump.”
Beyond a decision from the appellate court in the days ahead, the only way to stop the judge’s injunction, according to Cannon’s order, is if there is further direction from Attorney General Merrick Garland to do so. But for now, Cannon’s order temporarily stops Smith from releasing or sharing the report to anyone outside of the Justice Department. Trump and his lawyers have already reviewed the two-volume tome privately, according to the president-elect’s lawyers.
They dubbed it a “one-sided narrative” in court records.
Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump after ruling that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed. Smith appealed Cannon’s ruling but once Trump won the presidency in November, he dropped the matter since existing Justice Department guidance suggests that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. The prosecution was not dropped, however, against Nauta or De Oliveira and that matter is now on appeal.
Nauta and De Oliveira argue the release of the report could hurt their existing case.
Smith indicated in court records filed Monday night that he wouldn’t be handing over the finalized report to Garland until mid-afternoon Tuesday and that Garland agreed not to publish it until Friday morning at the earliest.