Judge Aileen Cannon during a hearing on Friday appeared skeptical of Merrick Garland’s plan to give Jack Smith’s Volume 2 final report on Trump’s classified documents case to Congress.
Cannon repeatedly asked DOJ lawyers why they needed to show the classified documents report to lawmakers. The Judge also asked if the final report was safeguarded from being leaked to the public.
“Why is there such urgency to disclose this to Congress right now, prior to the conclusion of the criminal proceeding — which would seem to be the ordinary course?” Cannon asked DOJ attorney Elizabeth Shapiro, according to Politico. “At the end of the day, what’s the upside of doing this right now?”
The DOJ lawyer argued that releasing a special counsel’s final report to Congress is a ‘historical practice.’
“I’m still not hearing a satisfying answer to that question,” Cannon said, according to Politico.
Shapiro insisted there was “virtually no likelihood that the report can leak.”
Lawyers for Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta insisted giving the final report to Congress would “really be a release publicly.”
Cannon said the final report contains information Trump’s lawyers argued were protected under attorney-client privilege.
The judge did not immediately issue a ruling.
Politico reported:
A federal judge appeared highly skeptical Friday of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s plan to show lawmakers the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s report pertaining to his now dismissed criminal case against President-elect Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents.
With the clock counting down towards Trump’s inauguration on Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon expressed serious doubts about nearly every argument a Justice Department attorney put forward for allowing the department to show four congressional leaders the portion of Smith’s report covering the classified-information probe.
Over the course of a 90-minute public hearing, Cannon — a Trump appointee— repeatedly questioned the urgency of showing the report to lawmakers in the coming days. The judge also challenged the safeguards the Justice Department says are in place to keep the report confidential and pressed for information on how prosecutors ensure that the report doesn’t contain information protected by grand jury secrecy.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland released Jack Smith’s Volume One report on his January 6 investigation into Trump on Tuesday after a temporary injunction blocking the release expired at midnight on Monday evening.
In September 2023 Trump was hit with 4 counts in Jack Smith’s January 6 case up in DC: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
A desperate Jack Smith attacked President Trump and absurdly claimed he would have been convicted if not for his 2024 election win.
Jack Smith’s case fell apart after the Supreme Court’s ruling but he believes Trump would have been convicted.
“Trump’s cases represented ones ‘in which the offense [was] the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain,’” Jack Smith wrote, according to Fox News.
“The Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind,” the report stated, according Fox News.
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