As President-elect Donald Trump gears up for his return to the White House, he and two of his co-defendants in his classified documents case are trying to block the release of the final report.
In a motion filed late Monday night, Trump attorneys asked Judge Aileen Cannon to bar Smith from releasing his two volume report, per The Hill.
The report review the documents as well as Trump’s efforts to block the transfer of power after the 2020 election.
Trump’s legal team wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and revealed they have reviewed a draft of the report. They are asking Garland to fire Smith. This would leave the incoming attorney general to make that decision of whether to release the report.
Mar-a-Lago valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos de Oliveira and their attorneys are relying on a ruling that found Smith was unlawfully appointed when asking her to block the report’s release.
“The Final Report relies on materials to which Smith, as disqualified special counsel, is no longer entitled access — making his attempt to share such materials with the public highly improper,” they wrote.
Smith’s team said in an early Tuesday morning filing it will provide a further response by 7 p.m.
“The Department can commit that the Attorney General will not release that volume to the public, if he does at all, before Friday, January 10, 2025, at 10:00 a.m.,” Smith’s team wrote. This is the same day Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in his hush money case.
Smith’s team has appealed Cannon’s ruling that tossed the case against the three men after it was determined Smith was not lawfully appointed.
Smith’s team has withdrawn charges against Trump, the case is still open for the two other defendants.
“The Draft Report violates fundamental norms regarding the presumption of innocence, including with respect to third parties unnecessarily impugned by Smith’s false claims. Releasing the report to the public without significant redactions (that would render its release meaningless) would violate prohibitions on extrajudicial statements by prosecutors,” Trump’s team wrote to Garland.
