Ex-prosecutor flags 2 key categories that could be released in Jack Smith’s final reports
Whether Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final reports outlining his investigation and indictments of Donald Trump become public is coming down to the wire, according to a legal expert, who said that two key categories of information are worth following as the country – and those the former president has promised vengeance on – await his return to the Oval Office.
The criminal cases still pending in Washington D.C. involving Trump include his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, including his instigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the classified documents probe, which, according to law professor Kim Wehle, “was already dismissed by the judge in a ridiculous ruling.”
With Trump just weeks away from returning to office – and all but sure to immediately fire Smith – there is little time for the special counsel to complete his final reports, Wehle wrote on Wednesday in an editorial for The Bulwark, where she urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to release the final reports.
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Wehle told readers that two categories in particular are worth keeping an eye on that could be released in the final reports: classified information and grand jury records.
“Biden could declassify parts of the Mar-a-Lago records for no other reason than to preserve for posterity the facts regarding Trump’s alleged national security crimes,” Wehle wrote. “If the records of the investigation aren’t declassified and published before the change in administrations, Trump will undoubtedly order them all destroyed — an action that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. U.S. would insulate from scrutiny.”
She said the grand jury material could be released the same way Kenneth Starr made public grand jury material in the Bill Clinton matter – with the judges overseeing the cases signing off on it under Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
In the meantime, Wehle concluded, “anyone who worked on the investigations — prosecutors, FBI agents, paralegals, analysts — will have to worry about getting a new job.”
They may even have to consult a criminal defense attorney too, given Trump’s promise to retaliate against those who prosecuted him, she added.