Judge Blocks Congress From Seeing Smith’s Report

NBC News reports:

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon granted a request from Donald Trump’s former co-defendants to stop the Justice Department from sharing special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents report with members of Congress.

“In short, the Department offers no valid justification for the purportedly urgent desire to release to members of Congress case information in an ongoing criminal proceeding,” Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote in an order published Tuesday.

Of course, whether the case is ongoing for much longer very much remains to be seen. The DOJ had appealed Cannon’s dismissal and then withdrew the appeal as to Trump after he won the election. It’s still pending as to his former co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, but the DOJ now under Trump can fully withdraw the appeal and he can pardon them.

Read the full article.

Judge Aileen Cannon just blocked the Justice Department from releasing the second volume of Jack Smith’s report to members of Congress. Probably irrelevant given Trump’s takeover of DOJ, but still a crazy abuse of power. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 10:02 AM