A federal judge has ruled that the Trump special counsel report can be released, but a temporary hold remains in place until further hearings.
Washington: So, there’s been a lot of back and forth in court about this special counsel report on Trump. A judge just said the Justice Department can go ahead and release it, but there’s still a temporary hold until Tuesday.
This whole thing is part of a legal tussle over the report from special counsel Jack Smith, who looked into Trump’s actions during the 2020 election. It’s a big deal since Trump is gearing up to reclaim the White House soon.
Now, the judge, Aileen Cannon, who was actually nominated by Trump, had previously blocked the release of the full report. But her latest ruling means we might finally get to see the part that talks about Trump allegedly trying to overturn his election loss to Biden.
There’s also a hearing set for Friday about another part of the report that deals with Trump keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office. The Justice Department isn’t planning to make that part public while there are still ongoing criminal cases against some of Trump’s associates.
Interestingly, Cannon had dismissed the classified documents case earlier, saying Smith’s appointment was illegal. The Justice Department dropped both cases after Trump won the presidency, following their policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Smith just resigned after sending his report to Attorney General Merrick Garland, which was mentioned in a court filing. Meanwhile, Trump’s spokesperson is calling for Biden and Garland to stop what they see as political misuse of the justice system.
If this ruling holds, we might finally get more details about Trump’s frantic attempts to hold onto power leading up to the January 6 Capitol riot. But it could also mean that the classified documents part of the report might not see the light of day anytime soon.
Lawyers for Trump’s co-defendants argued that releasing the report now could hurt their cases since they’re still in the legal process. The Justice Department suggested sharing it with some congressional officials for private review, but Cannon put a stop to that and wants a hearing first.
She’s concerned that releasing this information could seriously impact the legal rights of the defendants involved. Cannon wants to make sure everything is properly reviewed before any decisions are made.
