A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his dueling criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump.
South Florida US District Judge Aileen Cannon in an unsigned order barred Attorney General Merrick Garland, Smith, or any Justice Department officials from publishing the comprehensive details about the federal prosecutions of Trump.
The order will only remain in effect until three days after the Atlanta-based US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rules on whether Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
Smith unsealed two indictments against the former president two years ago: first, in southern Florida in June 2023, for allegedly hoarding classified documents after leaving office; second, in Washington, DC, in August 2023, for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
Cannon dismissed Smith’s classified documents case before the election last year, ruling that Smith had been improperly appointed by Garland without congressional approval.
But two co-defendants — the president-elect’s valet Walt Nauta and an employee at his Palm Beach, Fla., resort, Carlos De Oliveira — remain on the docket.
Their attorneys made an emergency appeal in both the West Palm Beach division that Cannon oversees and to the federal appeals court to stop Smith from transmitting the report and Garland from releasing it.
Trump lawyers filed a “friend of the court” brief on Tuesday as well, arguing the release of Smith’s final report would interfere in the soon-to-be 47th president’s transition efforts.
Though Smith has indicated he will resign before the president-elect takes office, his office is still seeking to try Nauta and De Oliveira for allegedly conspiring with Trump to conceal sensitive intelligence files and other classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
In July, Smith had appealed to the 11th Circuit Cannon’s dismissal of the classified documents charges against Trump — but backtracked following the former president’s big win over Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5.
DC US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in November dismissed the case against Trump that culminated in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. That indictment included no co-defendants.
But Smith never dropped charges against Nauta and De Oliveira in South Florida.
The co-defendants’ legal team made their emergency appeal as part of an effort to also have their indictments tossed by the higher court.
The release of Smith’s report would not only cut against the presumption of innocence for both — but further go against Cannon’s ruling that ended the Trump prosecution in Florida in the first place, according to Trump’s attorneys in their amicus brief.
Cannon, who was nominated to the federal bench by Trump during his first term, had determined that Smith was improperly appointed by Garland without a vote of Congress, which should approve the funding for any special counsel’s office as part of the larger Department of Justice budget.
Cannon said that her order was meant “[t]o preserve the status quo as this Court awaits resolution by the Eleventh Circuit of the similar Emergency Motion, to prevent irreparable harm arising from the circumstances as described in the current record in this emergency posture, and to permit an orderly and deliberative sequence of events.”
She also directed a copy of it to be sent to Smith, Garland, US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe and the clerk for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 11th Circuit may choose to overrule her order.
“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,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Tuesday.
“The American People elected President Trump with a historic and overwhelming mandate, and we look forward to uniting our country in the new Administration as President Trump makes America great again.”
Reps for the DOJ and Smith’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
