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WASHINGTON (CN) — An 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled Thursday against an effort by President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in his classified documents case to block Attorney General Merrick Garland from releasing a two-volume final report by special counsel Jack Smith.
However, a Tuesday ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, prevents Garland from releasing the report on Trump’s Washington election subversion case and Florida classified documents case until Sunday at the earliest.
The decision comes just days after Trump aide Walt Nauta and former Mar-a-lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira filed an emergency motion to both Cannon and the appeals court requesting the report’s release be blocked.
Trump’s attorneys, Todd Blanche and John Lauro, joined the effort in a Monday letter to Garland demanding that he block the report, warning that it would “illegally interfere with the presidential transition.”
With just 11 days until Trump’s inauguration, the president-elect has tried to sink many of his outstanding legal woes, with a recently failed attempt to block a looming Friday sentencing hearing in New York over his 34-count conviction for falsifying business records.
Trump petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday requesting an emergency stay of the sentencing, which the high court denied in a 5-4 decision Thursday night. Trump could similarly request the Supreme Court intervene in his fight to block Smith’s report.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s communication director, decried the 11th Circuit’s decision in a statement Thursday.
“Deranged Jack Smith was sent packing after losing both of his witch hunts against President Trump,” Cheung said. “It is time for Joe Biden and Merrick Garland to do the right thing and put a final stop to the weaponization of our Justice system. The American people election President Trump with a historic and overwhelming mandate, and we look forward to uniting our country in the new administration as President Trump makes America great again.”
In a Wednesday court filing, Garland indicated that he would only release Smith’s final report on the Washington election subversion case to avoid any prejudice against Nauta and De Oliveira in their pending Florida cases, after having reviewed both volumes of the report earlier this week.
Garland said in the brief that he would make the Florida report only available for review by the House and Senate Judiciary Committee leadership.
“The attorney general intends to release Volume One to Congress and the public,” Garland wrote, saying its release would further the “public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter.”
Garland added that his decision to keep the release of the Florida classified documents report limited to the Judiciary committees was at the recommendation of Smith.
In their Monday letter, Blanche and Lauro employed a slew of legal arguments Trump has used throughout his criminal cases.
Blanche and Lauro repeated the argument that Smith — who they called an “out-of-control private citizen” — had been unconstitutionally appointed, and thus his cases and anything related could not stand.
They said in the Monday letter that releasing the report would “extend and perpetuate” Smith’s apparent violations of the Constitution. They argued that since he was improperly appointed, he “pillaged" $20 million to further his dual investigations.
Garland rejected that argument, noting that while Cannon sided with the lawyers when she dismissed the classified documents case in July, it did not apply nationwide.
Further, the injunction request steps on Garland’s authority as attorney general, not Smith’s, and thus the argument is moot.
Trump has nominated Blanche as his deputy attorney general, the second-highest position at the Justice Department. He would likely be closely involved in any decision about the report’s release with Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, if they are confirmed.
In the filing, Garland asked the 11th Circuit to make clear when denying the motion that the decision is the final resolution and “should be the last word” unless the full appellate court or Supreme Court intervene.
Additionally, Garland asked that Cannon’s three-day ban be vacated and allow the election subversion report be released immediately.
The appellate court’s decision Thursday leaves Cannon’s order in place, and made it clear it was not the final word on the issue.
The requests upend the common practice of allowing special counsels to issue a final report detailing their findings to the public, regardless of whether the probe resulted in criminal charges or conviction — such as special counsel Robert Hur’s final report on President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
Many of Smith’s findings have been made public over the course of the investigation as part of an immunity brief and subsequent dossier released in October, but the final report would be his last chance to outline how Trump tried to maintain his grip on power in 2020.
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