About those Jack Smith reports
Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress he plans to release Jack Smith’s special counsel’s report on the Jan. 6 investigation. The secret documents case is the second volume of the two-volume report (CNN):
Garland, in a letter sent Wednesday to House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairs and ranking members, outlines how he wants to confidentially provide to them Smith’s volume on the classified documents case and how he wants to release to Congress and to the public the volume on Trump’s 2020 election interference criminal charges.
Garland specifies he would do so “when permitted to do so by the court.”
Both cases have been dismissed before any findings of guilt or innocence, and the defendants are currently challenging the release of all parts of Smith’s report, signaling a major shift in the approach to transparency from the Justice Department that is expected in Trump’s administration.
“Consistent with local court rules and Department policy, and to avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, whose criminal cases remain pending, I have determined, at the recommendation of the Special Counsel, that Volume Two should not be made public so long as those defendants’ criminal proceedings are ongoing,” Garland wrote.
The “when permitted to do so by the court” language is a nod to Judge Eileen Cannon’s likely overstep when she issued an order to prevent their release:
After Cannon granted their request for an emergency order blocking the report’s release, Trump’s attorneys shifted gears and asked the Eleventh Circuit to remand the case back to Cannon.
But of course they (he) did. The matter may be decided by the Eleventh Circuit Court this morning.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance notes the problem Nauta and De Oliveira pose for Trump if he wants Smith’s report on the documents case kept from the public eye:
The Government told the court that its plan is to release the entire volume of the report that is related to the January 6 prosecution in Washington, D.C., but they do not plan to publicly release the volume about the classified documents because that case is still pending. They will, however, share a redacted version of that part of the report with House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders, who must promise to keep it secret until the case concludes. That puts the new Trump administration on the horns of a dilemma: Let that case proceed, and the report stays behind the scenes (although the evidence would come out at trial or during guilty plea hearings). Or pardon the defendants or dismiss the prosecution, and Democrats in Congress no longer need to keep the report confidential.
Who knew being a criminal autocrat was so complicated? Not that the effort will make Trump’s bronzer run.