Judge Aileen Cannon indicated on Friday that she is currently not inclined to permit the Justice Department to provide Congress with special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the classified documents case—at least for the time being. “At the end of the day, what’s the urgency of doing this right now?” Cannon asked Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Shapiro at a hearing in her Ft. Pierce, Florida, courtroom, per CNN.
Earlier this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland made public the section of Jack Smith’s report concerning January 6 and the allegation that Trump attempted to overturn the election. The Justice Department is looking to share the classified documents portion of Smith’s report with a select group of congressional members but has no immediate plans to release it publicly, CNN added.
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, has overseen parts of the criminal case in Florida involving the special counsel’s charges against Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. She was randomly assigned this case after previously ruling in Trump’s favor in a civil matter—a decision later overturned by higher courts—that had stalled the documents investigation. Cannon drew criticism for delays in the proceedings and ultimately dismissed the charges against Trump, ruling that Smith’s appointment violated the Constitution.
Smith has resigned from the department, meaning Garland will lose any control over the report—and the classified documents case overall—once Trump takes office on Monday at noon. Friday’s hearing ended without any ruling from Cannon.
The crux of the dispute before Cannon concerns the level of transparency Congress is entitled to in a special counsel investigation, especially after Trump signaled during the 2024 campaign that he would not honor the usual independence such a probe maintains under an administration. On Friday, Cannon pressed Shapiro about why the department wants to present the report to Congress now, given the prosecution against Trump’s former co-defendants might still be revived. Cannon dismissed the case against them last summer, but that decision is currently under appeal.
Trump was removed as a defendant in the appeal after his reelection, but on Friday Cannon asked the Justice Department whether it was still possible for the dismissed charges to be refiled against him, since the case had been dismissed “without prejudice”—meaning prosecution could still be an option. Shapiro said she did not have an answer, CNN said.
The Justice Department indicated that if permitted by the court, it would share the report with the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, with the stipulation that they view it behind closed doors and refrain from publicly disclosing its contents. Nonetheless, Cannon requested examples of past instances when the department shared non-public information with Congress about an active investigation.
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