By Steve Neavling
Donald Trump, along with two of his allies, is making a last-ditch effort to prevent special counsel Jack Smith from releasing a final report on two criminal cases against the president-elect that were recently dismissed.
Trump’s legal team sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday, arguing that Smith’s report — a two-volume document they reviewed over the past three days — should not be made public, Politico reports.
Meanwhile, two of Trump’s former co-defendants have filed a request with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to stop the Justice Department from releasing any findings from Smith’s investigation into the classified documents case. Trump had been charged in that case with conspiring to retain sensitive materials after leaving office in 2021.
In their letter, Trump’s attorneys claimed that making the special counsel’s findings public would amount to political interference during the presidential transition. The report, which includes evidence from both the classified documents case and the federal election conspiracy case, was described by Trump’s team as a politically motivated attack.
They further argued that it should be up to Trump’s incoming administration to decide the fate of Smith’s report.
The attorneys called on Garland to immediately dismiss Smith from his role, writing, “Because Smith has proposed an unlawful course of action, you must countermand his plan and remove him promptly.”
Neither Garland nor Smith’s representatives responded to requests for comment about the situation.
Under Justice Department rules, special counsels are required to produce reports outlining their investigative findings and charging decisions. These reports often attract widespread public attention, as seen during Trump’s first term when Robert Mueller’s report detailed connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
While such reports are initially confidential, Garland has publicly committed to releasing Smith’s findings in some form, following a precedent set by previous attorneys general from both parties.
Hints about the report’s contents emerged in the letter Trump’s legal team sent to Garland. The special counsel reportedly described Trump’s actions to overturn the 2020 election results as “an unprecedented criminal effort” and referred to him as “the head of the criminal conspiracies.” Smith also accused Trump of having a “criminal design.”
The letter, signed by four of Trump’s lawyers, including Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, also criticized the report for including what they described as “attacks on other anticipated members of President Trump’s incoming administration.”
Additionally, Trump’s team claimed the report faulted the social media company X for its initial resistance to prosecutors’ attempts to obtain data from Trump’s account.
Lawyers for Trump and the remaining defendants in the classified documents case expressed frustration over the process for reviewing Smith’s report. In both the letter and a related court filing, they described being given only a brief period to examine the draft, which they called insufficient.
Despite the limited review time, Trump’s legal team criticized the document as “one-sided” and “slanted.”
