The federal judge in Florida who previously dismissed the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump that state has now temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report of his investigation.
On Monday evening, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, filed an emergency motion to Judge Aileen Cannon requesting that she prohibit Smith from releasing the report.
“Despite this Court’s concluding that Smith is unconstitutionally appointed and funded, and despite ongoing proceedings against Defendants Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Olivera, Special Counsel Smith, in defiance of this Court’s rulings, is determined to have the final word by pushing forward with issuing and transmitting a final report,” their attorneys argued, “which Attorney General Garland is certain to make immediately public.”
Both the defendants, who worked for Trump, and the president-elect himself pleaded not guilty in the case.
The two-volume report is expected to describe charging decisions made in separate investigations by Smith into Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Also, on Monday night, Trump’s attorneys wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting that Smith’s report not be published.
In his letter to Garland, Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that Smith was unlawfully appointed to the position of special counsel — the key reason Cannon dismissed the case last July. Thus, if his final report were to be published, it would violate the Appointments Clause and the Appropriations Clause, he said.
“Rather than acknowledging, as he must, President Trump’s complete exoneration, Smith now seeks to disseminate an extrajudicial ‘Final Report’ to perpetuate his false and discredited accusations. ... It is clear, as has been the case with so many of the other actions of Smith and his staff, that the Draft Report merely continues Smith’s politically-motivated attack, and that his continued preparation of the Report and efforts to release it would be both imprudent and unlawful,” Blanche said.
In her ruling on Tuesday, Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in his first term, barred the report from being shared with anyone outside of the Justice Department until the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has time to review Trump’s motion to dismiss the report.
The same Atlanta Appeals Court is also reviewing Smith’s appeal against Cannon’s dismissal of the case, which stemmed from questions surrounding his allegedly unlawful appointment.
“The Emergency Motion, filed to preserve the status quo, seeks immediate injunctive relief to prevent irreparable injury from the reported imminent release to the public of a Final Report prepared by Special Counsel Smith,” Cannon said in her court order Tuesday morning.
Smith responded in a filing that Garland would not release the report to the public “if he does at all” until at least Friday, Jan. 10, at 10 a.m. ET.
N.Y. Appeals Court rejects Trump’s delay request
Also on Tuesday, a New York appeals court judge dismissed Trump’s last-minute request to postpone his Friday sentencing and delay any other proceedings in the criminal case that found him guilty of all 34 counts against him last May.
Trump’s request to the New York Appellate Court only came after Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the criminal case, denied the president-elect the right to postpone his sentencing on Monday.
At a hearing before the ruling was made, Appellate Court Judge Ellen Gesmer questioned both parties.
Blanche argued during the hearing that Trump should be protected from conviction because of the Justice Department laws allowing presidential protection from criminal proceedings while in office.
“Do you have any support for the notion that presidential immunity extends to the president-elect?” Gesmer asked, per The Associated Press.
“There’s never been a case like this before. So no,” Blanche said.
With the Friday sentencing just 10 days from Trump’s presidential inauguration, he will become the first president to enter office convicted of crimes.
Merchan did permit Trump to video in to the sentencing rather than in person.