Special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday issued his first response to the effort by Donald Trump’s accusers to have the judge throw out his classified documents case. issue an emergency order Blocking Smith’s final report on the investigation.
Attorneys for former Trump accusers Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira asked Judge Aileen Cannon — who dismissed the case after ruling Smith’s appointment unconstitutional in July — to order Attorney General Merrick Garland to bar the public release of the report. 10.
In a brief presentation, Assistant Special Counsel James Pearce confirmed that the office is “working to finalize” a report and that Attorney General Garland – who has the final say on what material from the report is made public – has not yet determined what to release. A volume related to research on Smith’s classified documents.
The office assured Judge Cannon in its filing that Smith would not release that particular volume of the report until 10 a.m. Friday and would file a full response to Nauta and DeOliveira’s emergency motion by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The legal maneuvering of Trump’s ex-accused so far Trump’s personal lawyers sent a letter to Garland to remove Smith from his position and on the same day they sent a letter to Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi to make the decision about the release of the report.
“No report should be prepared or released, and Smith should be removed for even suggesting such a course of action given his obvious political motivations and desire to illegally undermine the transition,” wrote Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, defense attorneys for Trump and his options. For senior positions in the Department of Justice.
Smith is winding down the cases against the president-elect, has dismissed Trump’s election interference case and dropped his appeal of the classified documents case against Trump, and is expected to submit a final report on his investigations before Garland steps down.