Donald Trump’s former accusers are asking the judge who threw out their classified documents case to issue an emergency injunction to block the release of Jack Smith’s final report on the president-elect’s investigation into the public.
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.
The unorthodox legal maneuver came on the same day that Trump’s personal lawyers sent a letter to Garland asking him to remove Smith from his position and leave the decision to release the report to Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi.
“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.
President-elect Donald Trump looks on during the Turning Point USA AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix.
Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
While Trump’s criminal charges have largely faded since his election in November, Trump’s lawyers have spent the last few days before his inauguration trying to clean up the remnants of his criminal charges, including seeking to delay Trump’s Jan. 10 sentencing in his New York case and block Smith’s report summarizing the research.
Smith is wrapping up his case against Trump — he dismissed his 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.
While special counsels typically prepare reports at the end of their investigations, Trump’s lawyers argued that releasing Smith’s report — a draft of which they reviewed over the weekend — would be “no more than a lawless political situation” that harms the transition effort. “it violates the basic rules on the presumption of innocence.”
In addition to asking Garland to block the release of the report, lawyers for Trump’s former accusers separately asked Judge Cannon to grant an order blocking the release of the report because Smith is not authorized to serve as special counsel and therefore should not have access to the materials. in the report
Cannon dismissed the case against Trump and his co-defendants on the same grounds, finding Smith’s appointment and funding as Special Counsel unconstitutional.
“Despite losing in court and the nomination not being valid, Smith is determined to pursue this case in the court of public opinion,” wrote attorneys Nauta and De Oliveira.
Lawyers for the men accused of helping Trump illegally store classified documents and obstruct justice argued that releasing the report would prejudice any future proceedings by tainting potential jurors and making the defense “unreasonably difficult.”
While Smith dropped his appeal against Trump, he sent an ongoing appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to federal prosecutors in Florida for the two defendants.
Lawyers for the two men argued that the “one-sided” report would offer an unfair presentation of the evidence in the case to convince them that “everyone Smith accused is guilty of the crimes he’s accused of,” even if the case was dismissed.
“These defendants will suffer irreparable harm from the Government’s unauthorized and confusing use of political law to include the unauthorized Report,” defense attorneys said, accusing Smith of “engaging in a media mudslide.” of the report
Nauta and De Oliveira requested an emergency hearing on the release of the report and asked Judge Cannon to issue an order blocking the release until January 10, “because there is no reason to believe that the Government will issue the Final Report within the next few days.”
“The Final Report is intended to be the judgment of the Government against the accused against all the rules of criminal justice,” the filing said.
Spokesmen for Special Counsel Jack Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland declined ABC News’ requests for comment.
