House Democrats demand Bondi release special counsel report on Trump classified documents case

WASHINGTON (CN) — House Judiciary Committee Democrats on Friday pressed the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi to release special counsel Jack Smith’s report on President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents.

And the lawmakers, who accused Bondi of suppressing the special counsel investigation while simultaneously authorizing Smith to testify to Congress, are also readying to petition a federal court to lift an injunction that has long blocked the report’s release.

Though the Justice Department early this year dropped the classified documents case against Trump following his election victory, Smith’s report has remained under wraps thanks to a January order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. Cannon, a Trump appointee, reasoned at the time that publishing the report would threaten defendants in ongoing cases and that Congress had not yet requested its disclosure for legislative purposes.

But in recent weeks, the House Republican majority has turned its attention to Smith as it probes federal prosecutions against Trump under the Biden administration. The Judiciary Committee earlier this month issued a subpoena to the former special counsel ordering him to appear before lawmakers for closed-door testimony.

The Justice Department has authorized Smith to testify — a fact that Democrats said in a Friday letter to Bondi was “baffling” given the agency’s refusal to publish his classified documents report.

“While claiming DOJ is willing to engage in ‘extraordinary accommodation,’ you continue to deprive Congress and the American people of the single most important and comprehensive account of that investigation, in clear violation of DOJ’s consistent practice of publicly releasing reports of special counsel investigations,” said the lawmakers, led by Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin.

The Democrats argued that the Justice Department had “no justification” for withholding Smith’s report beyond its initial claim that it was protecting the fairness of proceedings against Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. The agency, however, dismissed that case in February.

“For 10 months you have had zero legal basis for withholding the report,” Raskin and his colleagues wrote. “Now you have authorized Mr. Smith to testify behind closed doors about the investigation that the report memorializes — while still refusing to produce the report itself.”

The lawmakers claimed the Justice Department should be willing to produce documents concerning information it has permitted Smith to discuss under oath, adding that the report was an “essential piece” of his testimony and that members of Congress could not meaningfully interview him without it.

In addition to demanding that Bondi turn over the Smith report, the Democrats urged the Justice Department to file an emergency petition with the Southern District of Florida asking Cannon to lift the injunction blocking its release, pointing out that the proceedings that initially justified its concealment ended 10 months ago.

“Stop hiding the facts and produce the report so that the American people can judge for themselves whether President Trump violated the law and endangered our national security by stockpiling our nation’s most sensitive secrets in the bathroom of his golf club,” said the Democrats.

In a statement to Courthouse News, the Justice Department signaled it had no intention of publishing the Smith report, citing Cannon’s injunction and chalking the Democrats’ letter up to a political stunt.

“The Department of Justice is under a court order not to release Volume II of this report,” an agency spokesperson said. “During Attorney General Bondi’s confirmation, Democrats repeatedly sought assurances that her department would follow court orders — what changed?”

Meanwhile, Raskin and other Judiciary Committee Democrats on Friday prepared to file an amicus brief with the Southern District of Florida asking the court to overturn Cannon’s January injunction. In a draft of the friend-of-the-court brief, reviewed by Courthouse News, the lawmakers claimed that leaving the order in place would “obstruct the critical flow of information” between Congress and the executive branch.

The Democrats told the court the initial rationale for blocking the Smith report’s release no longer held true. The criminal proceedings against Nauta and De Oliveira, they said, were dismissed, so publishing the report no longer threatened their right to a fair trial. And with House Republicans investigating Trump’s prosecutions, the lawmakers argued there was now a legislative need to disclose the report.

Further, Raskin and his colleagues said, overturning Cannon’s injunction is in the public interest. They called the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents “one of the most significant criminal investigations in American history.”

They argued that releasing the Smith report would dispel an “untenable asymmetry” between public accusations leveled about the special counsel investigation by House Republicans and the availability of information about Smith’s probe. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have long contended that the classified documents case against the president was politically motivated.

“Neither the committee nor the public can meaningfully evaluate Mr. Smith’s conduct, or assess the Committee’s accusations, without access to the report that memorializes what the Special Counsel actually did and why,” the Democrats said. “Whatever interests may have justified the court’s original order, those interests cannot support perpetuating a one-sided public record indefinitely.”

As of Friday morning, the lawmakers’ amicus brief had yet to be filed with the court.

Trump himself has long criticized Smith’s investigations, most recently calling him a “sick man” and a “thug” during a news conference in the Oval Office last week. But the president has also said that he would prefer to see the former special counsel testify before Congress in a public hearing rather than behind closed doors.

“I’d rather see him testify publicly because there’s no way he can answer the questions,” Trump told reporters.

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