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By Sophie Clark
Live News Reporter
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Federal Judge Aileen Cannon has blocked lawmakers obtaining special counsel Jack Smith's report into Donald Trump's handling of classified documents.
In a new ruling released Tuesday, Cannon granted a request from Trump's co-defendants, his aides Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, to deny the Department of Justice's request to release the report. The move blocks the report from being shared with the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
"Never before has the Department of Justice, prior to the conclusion of criminal proceedings against a defendant—and absent a litigation-specific reason as appropriate in the case itself—sought to disclose outside the Department a report prepared by a Special Counsel containing substantive and voluminous case information," Cannon wrote.
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When contacted by Newsweek, the Department of Justice declined to comment on the court's ruling.
Newsweek has contacted the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Donald Trump will never likely face trial for allegations he mishandled classified documents, which were found at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, on account of DOJ regulations that forbid the prosecution of a sitting president.
Cannon's ruling now means lawmakers, at least for now, will not be lawfully able to view prosecutor Jack Smith's report on the case.
Smith said that if Trump were not re-elected he believes he would have been convicted of the charges laid out in his reports.
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What to Know
A first volume that looked into Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result was revealed, despite efforts by Trump's lawyers to keep it suppressed, on January 14 after Cannon approved its release.
Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago's former property manager, had argued the new volume "contains voluminous and detailed" discovery about the allegations in their criminal case, which remains pending on appeal.
In their initial ask for the report to remain classified lawyers for Nauta and De Oliviera's lawyers argued: "These Defendants will irreparably suffer harm as civilian casualties of the Government's impermissible and contumacious utilization of political lawfare to include release of the unauthorized Report."
Cannon blocked former Attorney General Merrick Garland, his successor, the Department of Justice and anyone else involved in the case from "(a)releasing, sharing, or transmitting Volume II of the Final Report or any drafts of Volume II outside the Department of Justice, or (b) otherwise releasing, distributing, conveying, or sharing with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions in Volume II or in drafts thereof."
What People Are Saying
Judge Aileen Cannon in her ruling wrote: "the [Justice] Department has offered no valid reason to engage in this gamble with the Defendants' rights. The bare wishes of one Attorney General with "limited time" in office to comply with a non-existent "historical practice" of releasing Special Counsel reports in the pendency of criminal proceedings is not a valid reason. And surely it does not override the obvious constitutional interests of Defendants in this action and this Court's duty to protect the integrity of this proceeding."
What Happens Next
Defendants Nauta and de Oliveira are set to stand trial for their charges involving the mishandling of classified information.
Update 1/22/25, 3:13 a.m. ET: This story was updated to include information that the DOJ declined to comment on the case.
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