A federal judge in Florida is allowing for the Justice Department to proceed with releasing former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the election subversion case he pursued against President-elect Donald Trump that ultimately went nowhere.
Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon ruled Monday that the Justice Department could publish the section of Smith’s special counsel report on his prosecution of Trump for offenses related to his conduct surrounding the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Cannon has presided over Smith’s classified-documents case in Florida and is allowing the remaining defendants to contest his effort to release the section of his report on those proceedings. She threw out the classified-documents case in July in a ruling that determined Smith was unconstitutionally appointed special counsel. Her latest ruling denied an emergency motion from the two classified-documents co-defendants seeking to block the publication of both sections of Smith’s report.
Smith resigned from the Justice Department on Friday after finishing his report on the two federal cases against Trump. He has referred the classified-documents prosecutions of Trump’s co-defendants to federal prosecutors in south Florida. The special counsel report will conclude Smith’s duties as a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to handle the Trump prosecutions.
The Justice Department said in court papers last week that it will be giving the classified-documents portion of Smith’s report to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees, both of which are Republican-controlled.
Cannon’s decision to dismiss the classified-documents case and the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling prompted by Smith’s D.C. case were two significant legal setbacks he faced along the way. The Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity for “official” acts, leading to a narrower election-subversion case against Trump after extensive litigation.
Neither of Smith’s cases went to trial ahead of the 2024 presidential election, a major letdown for Democrats who hoped President Joe Biden’s Justice Department would secure a conviction against their political rival.
Trump resoundingly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris this past November, effectively putting an end to the federal cases against him. During the campaign, Trump routinely criticized Smith for waging political prosecutions against him and made it clear that he would fire Smith immediately upon taking office.
The racketeering case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia is all but extinguished with the dismissal of embattled district attorney Fani Willis (D) from the proceedings. An appellate court booted Willis from the case in December over her romantic relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Trump was sentenced last week this month in the Manhattan, New York hush-money case but was let off without punishment ahead of his inauguration next week.