By Jeremy Roebuck, Perry Stein · The Washington Post (c) 2025
The Justice Department said it would not publicly release special counsel Jack Smith’s findingsonDonald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents until the ongoing litigation against his co-defendants concludes, according to a filing in a federal appeals court Tuesday morning.
But prosecutorssaid Attorney General Merrick Garland does intend to release a portion of Smith’s report outlining his investigation into Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election and willallow members of Congress to review the portions withheld on the classified documents investigation.
“This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendants’ interests,” the filing from federal prosecutors says.
Those assurances arrived a day after Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a federal judge in Florida, barred the release of the special counsel’s entire report for at least three days.
Prosecutors say that report is two volumes. One volume outlines the mishandling of the classified documents and obstruction case, and the other details the findings in the D.C. election interference case against Trump.
In response, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta on Tuesday morning to overturn Cannon’s order.
According to the request, the special counsel turned over the report on Tuesday evening to Garland, who then decides what portions of the report should be released publicly.
When Trump won the presidential election in November, Smith said he would wind down the two ongoing federal prosecutions against Trump, citing Justice Department regulations prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
In the D.C. election interference prosecution, Smith asked a judge to dismiss the entire case against Trump. Cannon had already dismissed the Florida classified documents case against Trump and two co-defendants, and Smith was in the process of appealing that ruling.
Instead of abandoning the appeal, Smith dropped Trump as a party in that case, and the Justice Department is continuing that appeal with the two co-defendants. Because those co-defendants – longtime Trump employees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira – could still go to trial, Smith said in the filing Tuesday that he would not release that portion of the report and risk violating their rights.
The litigation against the two co-defendants is unlikely to conclude before Jan. 20, which means it would fall to Trump’s Justice Department to decide what to do with the report.