A judge in the United States has temporarily barred Special Counsel Jack Smith from releasing a report on his investigation into President-elect Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents.
On Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon, the federal judge who presided a case that has now been dismissed against Trump, ordered the US Department of Justice not to release the report until the appeals court makes a decision on the request of his former representatives.
The opponents, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, still have a story to go on. They said that the release of the report could interfere with their right to a fair hearing.
An indictment in the landmark case was announced in June 2023, where prosecutors said Trump and Nauta, his aide, defied the government's order to hand over documents containing classified information and other sensitive material after they left government service.
Prosecutors also accused the pair of trying to hide the documents and concealing evidence that they had done so.
De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was indicted in August 2023 in an amended indictment, in which he was involved in a conspiracy to remove surveillance footage.
Trump is the first US president to be impeached. Since then, he has been convicted of another felony, for business fraud in New York.
The classified documents case, meanwhile, has hit several roadblocks since it was first announced.
Judge Cannon, appointed by Trump, threw out the case last July, arguing in his decision that the position of “special counsel” was not approved by the congress.
This conflicted with years of legal precedent: Special counsel were often authorized to provide independent counsel in cases where there might be a conflict of interest.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, a member of President Joe Biden's administration, nominated Smith in 2022 to participate in the investigation of Trump.
In addition to the high-profile cases, Smith also investigated Trump's alleged bid to reverse his 2020 re-election bid. This led to additional charges in August 2023.
All federal cases were he has fallen Last November, Trump won a second term in office. Smith also announced his intention to step down before Trump's inauguration, when the Republican nominee will take over the Justice Department.
“It has been the contention of the Department of Justice that the Constitution of the United States prohibits impeachment of the government and impeachment of the President,” Smith wrote in the law at the time.
Smith's report is said to consist of two volumes: one on election documents and the other on the election tampering case. But a spokesman for Smith's office declined to comment on Judge Cannon's order Monday, blocking his release.
Justice Department rules require Smith to submit a final report to Garland, who has previously promised to release all reports from the special counsel in due course.
Trump praised Judge Cannon's decision during a question-and-answer session at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.
He has been criticizing these cases for a long time saying that he wants to prevent him from returning to political power. On Monday, he repeatedly called Smith a “disgrace”.
“They wanted to do a report before I took office, so they're going to do like a 500-page report, and it's going to be a bogus report, just like the investigation was bogus,” Trump told reporters. learning stories.
“So if they are not allowed to report, that's how it should be. Because he was accused in disgrace. Why should he be allowed to write a false report?”