Trump nominee Aileen Cannon blocked the release of Jack Smith’s report on the classified documents investigation
US District Judge Aileen Cannon has blocked the public release of former special judge Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into whether President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents after his first term in the White House.
In an order filed Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Cannon wrote that the report should not be released outside the Department of Justice “due to the illegal appointment of Special Counsel Smith and Attorney General Bondi’s decision to prosecute.”
Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote that Smith and his team prepared the report for months after the classified documents case was dismissed in July 2024, ruling that his appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. The Justice Department under President Joe Biden appealed the decision, and former Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News that Smith’s appointment was constitutional and legal.
Cannon’s ruling on Monday argued that Smith “accelerated efforts” after his order until he left the DOJ in January 2025 to prepare and complete a report “using discovery material produced in this case.”
An appeals court found in 2022 that Cannon “improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction” over the Mar-a-Lago search, and his comments have been widely criticized as contempt for the president-elect.
Cannon said a protective order issued in June 2023 prevents any discovery material from being made public without court approval.
He also said it is “not customary” for a prosecutor to release a report containing more evidence after a criminal prosecution has been “dismissed by a final order without a conviction.”
Cannon said in December 2024, “as the presidential transition approached, Trump’s defense attorney learned through media reports that Special Counsel Smith and his team were planning to issue Title II to elect members of Congress.”
Cannon, however, blocked the DOJ from sharing the report with lawmakers in January 2025. He said the report contained “detailed and substantial” information detailing the case against Trump, much of which “has not yet been made public in court filings.”
Smith, who launched a new law firm with other colleagues last month, said during a speech before Congress in December that his team had produced “strong evidence showing that Trump deliberately kept the most important documents after he left office in Jan. 2021, keeping them in his social club, including the bathroom and the ballroom where events and gatherings took place.”
He told lawmakers that Trump has “repeatedly attempted to obstruct justice” to keep secret his stash of classified documents found during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
A representative for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As a special counsel during the Biden administration, Smith also oversaw the investigation into interference in the 2020 election, which resulted in four criminal charges. That case was dismissed more than a year later amid legal challenges and Trump’s re-election as president.
