Overview
- U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon barred the Justice Department from releasing Volume II of Jack Smith’s final report on Trump’s handling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago.
- The order binds Attorney General Pam Bondi and future DOJ leaders, preventing any sharing of the report outside the department, including to Congress.
- Cannon cited risks of disclosing non-public discovery, grand-jury and privileged material, and emphasized the defendants’ continued presumption of innocence.
- Volume I on the 2020 election probe was previously released, but the documents-focused volume stays sealed after Cannon’s 2024 ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed and the DOJ’s later decision to abandon prosecutions following Trump’s 2024 victory.
- American Oversight and the Knight First Amendment Institute are pressing expedited appeals in the 11th Circuit after DOJ backed keeping the report internal, which had been slated for public release on Tuesday absent the court’s order.