The Justice Department seeks to overturn a ruling preventing the release of a report on Trump’s actions before his inauguration
Washington D.C.: So, the Justice Department is really pushing to get a judge’s ruling overturned. They want to release special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump before he officially takes office.
It’s been a bit of a tug-of-war in the courts. The judge had blocked any part of the report from being made public, which has raised some eyebrows. The department is worried that once Trump is in, he might try to keep the report under wraps.
Interestingly, Smith just resigned from the Justice Department after handing over his report. This was expected, but it adds another layer to the whole situation.
They’re hoping to share some details soon, especially about Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. But there’s another part of the report about classified documents that they won’t release until some legal issues are sorted out.
Both investigations led to indictments against Trump, but Smith’s team dropped the cases after Trump won the election. They cited a policy that says you can’t prosecute a sitting president.
Recently, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request to block the release of the election interference report. The lower court judge, who was appointed by Trump, had put a hold on it until the appeals court made a decision.
Now, Trump’s co-defendants are trying to extend that hold, but the Justice Department is asking the appeals court to lift it completely. They argue that the Attorney General should have the final say on whether to release the report.
It’s pretty standard for special counsels to produce reports at the end of their investigations, and usually, these get made public. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen such reports; past attorneys general have done the same.
