A federal judge on Monday took steps to publicly release special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on President Donald Trump’s handling of classified material he stashed at Mar-a-Lago in 2021.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who had blocked the release of Smith’s classified report for nearly a year, agreed Monday to lift the Feb. 24 order.
However, Cannon also invited potential legal challenges from Trump or his former co-conspirators Walter Nota and Carlos de Oliveira, which could further delay the release of the report. The Trump-appointed judge stressed that her timetable for releasing the report could be overridden by legal claims that Smith’s report should never have been released at all.
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Cannon dismissed the case against Trump after ruling that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. The Justice Department appealed her ruling, but that challenge hung in the balance when Trump regained the presidency. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the appeals and cases against Trump, Nota and de Oliveira.
Shortly before Trump took office, Cannon rejected a Justice Department effort to release Smith’s final classified report. Trump argued earlier this month that Cannon’s conclusion that Smith was illegally appointed should result in Smith’s findings being permanently sealed.
Smith testified to Congress last week about his work as a special prosecutor, but was barred from revealing the scope of his work because of laws and rules regarding grand jury secrecy.