Garland tells Congress he plans to make the Jack Smith report on Trump cases available when the courts allow it

CNN
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Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress he plans to make special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the cases against Donald Trump available to committee leaders and eventually the public when the courts allow it, marking the formal end of Smith’s tenure.

Garland noted that he believes even the portion of the report on the classified documents case should be public one day.

Garland, in a letter sent Wednesday to House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairmen and ranking members, outlines how he wants to confidentially give them Smith’s volume on the classified documents case and how he wants to release the volume to Congress and the public on Trump’s 2020 election meddling criminal charges. .

Garland states that he would do so “when the court allowed it.”

Both cases have been dismissed before any finding of guilt or innocence, and the defendants are currently challenging the release of all parts of Smith’s report, signaling a major shift in the Justice Department’s approach to transparency that is expected in the Trump administration.

Garland also says in the letter that he never disagreed with any of Smith’s proposed actions as “inappropriate or unjustified.” These types of splits between the attorney general and a special counsel must be disclosed to Congress, but “there were no such instances during Special Counsel Smith’s investigation,” Garland wrote.

He said that once the criminal cases against Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira are concluded — they are still on appeal — Garland also believes the volume Smith wrote on the classified documents case should be released publicly. The DOJ has agreed to keep this volume confidential at this time, only given privately to the committee chairs if they request it, so as not to infringe on the rights of the two Trump staffers. Nauta and De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty.

“I have determined that once these criminal proceedings are concluded, releasing Volume 2 of the report to you and the public would also be in the public interest, consistent with the law and Department policy,” the attorney general wrote.

Of course, Garland will no longer be attorney general in 11 days, and the case for Nauta and De Oliveira will likely end when Trump takes office.

The letter is part of the anticipated closing action upon the closing of a special counsel’s office, as described in the Department of Justice’s rules.

But Garland’s disposition differs from others given the ongoing trial over Trump’s report, which he and his co-defendants in the classified documents case are trying to keep secret in its entirety.

A ruling on Garland’s disclosure plan from a federal appeals court is expected as early as Thursday.