Judge Aileen Cannon Blocks Jack Smith From Issuing Final Trump Report—For Now

Topline

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled Tuesday the Department of Justice can’t release Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into whether President-elect Donald Trump unlawfully withheld White House documents, after Smith suggested the final report could come out later this week.

Key Facts

Smith is set to issue a final report as part of his investigations into Trump and his allies—for allegedly mishandling White House documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election—which the special counsel said in a court filing could come out as soon as this week, should Attorney General Merrick Garland choose to release it.

Trump’s co-defendants in the documents case—whose cases are still ongoing, even as Trump’s charges were dropped—asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, to block the Justice Department from releasing the report on the documents case, arguing it could harm their ongoing prosecution.

Trump has also separately asked Garland not to make the final report public, or to at least pause its release until after Trump takes office.

Cannon ruled Tuesday the final report cannot be released outside the Department of Justice until the federal appeals court hearing the documents case rules that it can be, also saying the report can only be issued three days after any appeals court ruling, unless the higher court says otherwise.

This story is breaking and will be updated.