By Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday cleared the way for the U.S. Justice Department to publicly release a portion of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on President-elect Donald Trump’s 2020 election subversion case.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump at the end of his first term, had previously blocked the Justice Department from releasing the entire report.
She declined for now, however, a request by the Justice Department to allow congressional leadership to be permitted to review the second part of Smith’s report pertaining to Trump’s retention of classified documents and scheduled an emergency hearing on Friday to hear arguments on the matter.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously said that he intended to publicly release the first part of Smith’s report on Trump’s 2020 election subversion to the public, but that he would refrain from publicly releasing the portion on the classified documents case due to the ongoing criminal proceedings against Trump’s associates Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
Smith formally resigned his position as special counsel on Jan. 10.
A former war crimes prosecutor, Smith brought two of the four criminal cases Trump faced after leaving office, but saw them grind to a halt after Cannon dismissed the classified documents case and the U.S. Supreme Court—with three justices appointed by Trump—ruled that former presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for official acts.
Neither case went to trial, and the Justice Department has since dropped the cases against Trump, citing longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
(Reporting by Andrew Gousward and Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Susan Heavey)
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