The Justice Department says it plans to release only a portion of the special counsel’s Trump report for now

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department said Wednesday it intends to release special advisor Jack Smith’s findings regarding Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election but will keep secret for now, the rest of the report focuses on the president-elect’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The disclosure was made in an application to a federal appeals court that considered a defense request to block the release of the two-volume report, while charges are still pending against two Trump co-defendants in the Florida case accusing the Republican former president and current president-elect of illegally retaining classified documents. Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge presiding over the classified documents case, granted the request on Tuesday and issued a temporary block on the report.

The Justice Department said it would continue with plans to release the first of two volumes centered on the election meddling case, but would only make the classified documents section of the report available to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for their private review for as long as the case against Trump’s co-accused — Trump operative Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira — are underway.

“This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership informed of a significant Departmental matter while protecting the interests of the defendants,” the filing states.

The decision lessens the likelihood that the report on the investigation into classified documents, which of all inquiries against Trump had once appeared to hold the greatest legal threat, would ever be released, as Trump’s Justice Department almost certainly will not release the document, even after the case against Nauta and De Oliveira is resolved.

Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira objected to the Justice Department’s motion in a filing Wednesday night, asking the appeals court to send the case back to Cannon for a hearing.

They said sharing the report with members of Congress creates the potential for it to be leaked and “reflects an improper attempt to remove from the district court the responsibility to monitor and control the flow of information related to a criminal case that it conducts and to put that role instead in the hands of the prosecution—which, unlike the trial court, has a vested interest in promoting its own narrative of guilt.”

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has been scathingly critical of Smith, including during a wide-ranging press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, where he said: “It will be a false report like that. was a bogus study.”

It was not immediately clear when the report on election interference might be released. The filing asks the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse Cannon’s order, which appeared to at least temporarily halt the release of the entire report. The Justice Department asked the appeals court to reverse the freeze, making clear that its “resolution of this issue should be the final word,” though it also acknowledged the potential that the Supreme Court may be asked to consider.

In its letter, the Justice Department said the attorney general’s authority to publicly release the election interference section of the special counsel’s report is “clear” and that Trump’s co-defendants have no legal argument to block the release of a section that has nothing to do with do with. do with them.

“With regard to Volume 1 of the Final Report, the accused are hardly different from any other member of the public,” the department said.

The report is expected to detail the findings and explain charging decisions in Smith’s two investigations.

The request for classified documents was denied in July by Cannon, who concluded that Smith’s appointment was illegal. Smith’s appeal of the dismissal of the charges against Nauta and De Oliveira, who were accused along with Trump of obstructing the investigation, is still active, and their lawyers argued this week that releasing a report while the case was pending would be harmful and unfair.

The election meddling case was significantly narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. The court then ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, barring the prospect of Trump being prosecuted before the November election.

Smith’s team dropped both cases in November after Trump’s presidential victory, citing Justice Department policy barring federal prosecutions of sitting presidents.

Justice Department rules require special counsel appointed by the attorney general to submit a confidential report at the conclusion of their investigations. It is then up to the public prosecutor to decide what should be published.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has released in their entirety the reports produced by special counsel who operated under his watch, including Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information and John Durham’s report on the FBI’s investigation into Russian election meddling.

The court’s request by De Oliveira and Nauta to block the report also included a letter from Trump’s legal team, including Todd Blanche, his pick for deputy attorney general, that made similar remarks and used language that echoed some of Trump’s own attacks on Smith and his work .

Blanche told Garland that “the release of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the enormous sums of taxpayer money Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases.”