Judge Cannon permanently blocks release of Jack Smith report

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon permanently barred the Justice Department from releasing special counsel Jack Smith’s final report describing President Donald Trump’s stockpiling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and allegations that he obstructed government efforts to reclaim them.

Cannon lit into Smith for a “brazen stratagem”: compiling the detailed report even after she ruled in July 2024 his appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional and dismissed the case against Trump and two co-defendants. The Justice Department had appealed Cannon’s decision but dropped the case altogether after Trump’s election.

“Special Counsel Smith and his team went ahead for months, undeterred, preparing [the classified documents report] using discovery collected in connection with this proceeding and expending government funds in the process,” Cannon wrote in a 15-page ruling issued Monday. “To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, if not an outright violation of it.”

The Trump-appointed judge said releasing the report now would “contravene basic notions of fairness and justice” and amount to a “manifest injustice” because the case never reached a jury. It could also risk revealing information protected by attorney-client privilege and grand jury secrecy, she said.

“While it is true that former special counsels have released final reports at the conclusion of their work,” Cannon wrote, “it appears they have done so either after electing not to bring charges at all or after adjudications of guilt by plea or trial. The Court strains to find a situation in which a former special counsel has released a report after initiating criminal charges that did not result in a finding of guilt.”

Aides to Smith, who is now an attorney in private practice, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Judge Cannon’s courage and judicial resolve on these important due process issues should be recognized and taught in law school classrooms across America," Trump's lawyer Kendra Wharton said in response to the ruling.

Cannon has drawn scrutiny for rulings that favor Trump and cut against longstanding practice and precedent. She delayed the classified documents case for months when she installed an independent overseer to review materials seized from Mar-a-Lago — until a federal appeals court overturned her decision.

Cannon rejected the speedy schedule that Smith sought for the criminal case and threw it out on the day Trump was formally nominated at the 2024 Republican National Convention, a week after the assassination attempt that nearly took his life.

In her ruling, Cannon emphasized that “all parties” agreed that Smith’s report should not be made public. That is technically true, because after Trump was sworn in to his second term last year, the Justice Department took the position that the report should never be released. Trump’s private lawyers and Trump’s former co-defendants, Carlos de Oliveira and Walt Nauta, also opposed release of the report.

However, two legal groups who favor release of the report — American Oversight and the Knight First Amendment Institute — sought to formally intervene in the dismissed criminal case to argue in support of disclosure. Cannon denied them permission to do so. The groups’ appeal of that decision remains pending at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Numerous individuals and organizations, including news outlets, have also sought Smith’s report under the Freedom of Information Act. Unless a higher court overrules Cannon, her order effectively blocks such requests.

The first volume of Smith’s final report addressed Trump’s actions to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election and evidence supporting Smith’s election-related criminal case against Trump. That volume of the report was made public by the Justice Department in January 2025, days before President Joe Biden left office.

Before retaking office, Trump asked Cannon to block both volumes of the report, but Cannon concluded at the time she didn’t have the power to intervene in matters stemming from the election investigation.