(AFP) – US Attorney General Merrick Garland plans to publicly release the special counsel’s report on the prosecution of Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped the federal criminal case against Trump after he won November’s presidential election, but Smith has compiled a report summarizing the findings.
The Justice Department stated that Garland does not plan to publicly release Smith’s report on the other case brought against Trump for removing large quantities of top secret documents after leaving the White House. Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the documents case against the former and future president last year, but charges are still pending against two of his former co-defendants.
Cannon, in a ruling on Tuesday, barred Smith and Garland from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report” until an appeals court hears arguments from the pair – Trump’s long-time valet and a Mar-a-Lago employee. The Justice Department asked the appeals court on Wednesday to overturn Cannon’s ruling but noted that Garland, “to avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants,” does not intend to publicly release the report on the documents case while it is ongoing.
Trump, 78, was accused by Smith of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden and stashing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Trump attacked Smith at a news conference on Tuesday, calling him a “deranged individual.” “Why should he be allowed to write a fake report?” the Republican president-elect said. “It’ll be a fake report just like the investigation was a fake investigation.”
Smith dropped the cases against Trump, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, after the election, citing a Justice Department policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president.
Trump’s attorneys have urged Garland not to release the reports. “Smith’s proposed plan for releasing a report is unlawful, undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest,” they said in a letter to Garland. Releasing the report, they argued, “would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump.”
Garland allowed the release last year of a report by another special counsel, Robert Hur, into Biden’s handling of classified documents while vice president. Hur declined to file any charges against Biden but, in a politically damaging aside, described him as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
Trump additionally faced two state cases – in New York and Georgia. He was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election, aiming to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter. Sentencing in that case has been set for Friday, but Judge Juan Merchan has indicated he is not inclined to impose jail time. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a last-minute bid to block his sentencing.
In Georgia, Trump faces racketeering charges over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, but that case will likely be frozen while he is in office.
© 2024 AFP
