President-elect Donald Trump said the final ’witch hunt’ reports from former special counsel Jack Smith shouldn’t be allowed to be released.
“Why would Deranged Jack Smith be allowed to issue a ’report’ on a complete and total Witch Hunt against me, strictly for political purposes, when he was thrown off the case and ultimately dismissed by the DOJ,” Mr. Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social.
“Therefore, to put it nicely, he was illegitimately involved in this political persecution, and all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by our hapless government were, simply put, wasted!” he posted. “He has already filled thousands of rejected statements and documents against me, which were a ’joke,’ and the public just voted for me, in a landslide, to be their President!”
Lawyers for Mr. Trump and his two co-defendants in the Florida classified documents case have tried to stop the release of the two final reports from the cases Mr. Smith pursued against Mr. Trump — the classified documents case and the 2020 election interference case.
However, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the classified documents case volume of the report will stay unreleased while the case against the two co-defendants is still pending, but there is no reason to not release the 2020 election interference case volume.
Mr. Smith announced his resignation last week in a court filing with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida. In the filing, Mr. Smith called on Judge Cannon to not extend her injunction on the release of the report that was put on earlier last week.
The classified documents case brought against Mr. Trump was dismissed in July after Judge Cannon said Mr. Smith was illegally appointed by the Justice Department. Mr. Smith said he would appeal the decision to dismiss the case, but ultimately gave it up.
In November, Mr. Smith moved to dismiss the 2020 election interference case out of Washington, showing that he was winding down the cases against Mr. Trump after he won the 2024 election.
The special counsel’s office is required to issue a final report to the attorney general, who can then decide whether it’s made public.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.