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WASHINGTON (CN) — Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a court filing Wednesday that he would only release special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his election subversion case against Donald Trump, pending a decision by the 11th Circuit.
The filing comes as President-elect Trump has moved tokeep Garland from releasing a two-volume report by Smith covering both his federal election subversion case and classified documents case, in Washington and Florida respectively.
Garland said in the brief that he would only make the Florida report 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 classified documents report limited to the Judiciary committees was at the recommendation of Smith. He said he wished to avoid any prejudice while the cases of Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira were still pending.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, temporarily blocked Garland from releasing either report until three days after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on an emergency motion by Nauta and De Oliveira to similarly enjoin the reports’ release. Nauta and De Oliveira asked the appellate court to rule by Friday.
Garland noted that Nauta and De Oliveira had no basis to enjoin the election subversion report, which would remain under the jurisdiction of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the Barack Obama appointee who presided over Trump’s criminal case in Washington.
He added that there would also be no basis for “any other interested party” to try and block the release of the election subversion case, referencing Trump himself, the only defendant in the now-dismissed Washington case.
As part of Nauta and De Oliveira’s effort, Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro sent Garland a letter on Monday urging him to block the release of both volumes, employing a slew of legal arguments Trump has used throughout his criminal cases.
Blanch 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 Monday that releasing the report would “extend and perpetuate” Smith’s apparent violations of the Constitution. They argue 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.
Blanche and Lauro had asked Garland to leave the decision up to the Trump administration and Trump’s attorney general pick Pam Bondi.
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 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 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.
The ongoing fight over the reports come as Trump has petitioned the Supreme Court to delay his looming sentencing in New York over his 34-count conviction for falsifying business records, set for Friday.
Trump predicted that his appeal would dismiss the “politically motivated prosecution,” urging the justices to prevent “a grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency.”
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over the hush money case, made an exception that Trump would be allowed to attend his sentencing remotely. Still, Trump says holding the hearing at “the apex of the presidential transition period” violates due process and New York criminal law.
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