Judge Cannon Denounces Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago Report as ‘Brazen Stratagem’ and Blocks Its Release in Major Victory for Trump

The ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon permanently banning the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his Mar-a-Lago case is a stunning victory for President Trump — if he can preserve the ruling on appeal. Judge Cannon, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2020 by Mr. Trump, had already ruled that Mr. Smith was unlawfully appointed and dismissed the criminal charges he brought against Mr. Trump and two of his employees — the valet Waltine Nauta and the property manager Carlos De Oliveira. Mr. Smith appealed those rulings, but the case ended when Mr. Trump retook the White House.Now Judge Cannon reckons that the release of the report would be a “manifest injustice” to Mr. Trump and his co-defendants, who “enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order.” She reasons that “while it is true that former special counsels have released final reports at the conclusion of their work, 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 special counsel regulations — called the “Reno Rules” — mandate that special prosecutors are required to write a report of their prosecutions and submit that dossier to the attorney general. Mr. Smith completed that assignment for both of his criminal cases against Mr. Trump, and the January 6 summary was released on January 14, 2025, during President Biden’s waning hours in office. Mr. Smith’s Mar-a-Lago report, which was tangled up in Judge Cannon’s rulings, could not be released while Mr. Biden was still in power. If Mr. Trump continues to have his way, the document may never see the light of day. Two left-leaning legal groups, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia and American Oversight, have been pushing to make the report public. The defendants insist that “constitutional expungement” — meaning total destruction — is the only viable fate for the report. Attorney General Pam Bondi has argued in her own filing that the summary ought to be consigned “to the dustbin of history.” The president’s latest filing in the case thundered that, in respect of the document, “enough is enough.”Boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach. Justice Department via APThe Knight Institute argues that “This report is of singular importance to the public because it addresses allegations of grave criminal conduct by the nation’s highest-ranking official. There is no legitimate reason for the report’s continued suppression.” The group is seeking what the law calls an “extraordinary” remedy — a writ of mandamus whereby the 11th United States Appeals Circuit commandeers the case and releases the report. Judge Cannon’s order on Monday, though, declares that to do so would “cause irreparable damage to former defendants from disclosure of non-public discovery material” and would contravene “basic notions of fairness and justice in the process, where no adjudication of guilt has been reached following initiation of criminal charges.” All three defendants pleaded “not guilty” to Mr. Smith’s allegations, and the case was dismissed before trial.Judge Cannon’s prose appears to seethe as she writes that even after she disqualified Mr. Smith he “went ahead for months, undeterred,” preparing his report while “using discovery collected in connection with this proceeding and expending government funds in the process.” That echoes Ms. Bondi’s contention that Mr. Smith’s report is “illicit” because of his appointment woes.The Florida jurist writes that even after Messrs. Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira objected to the report, the special counsel “continued unabated, offering defendants only the courtesy of brief review under strict conditions, including forced deletion of discovery materials in the custody of the defense.” Judge Cannon calls that persistence “a concerning breach of the spirit” of her order dismissing the case, “if not an outright violation of it.” She writes that she “need not countenance this brazen stratagem or effectively perpetuate the Special Counsel’s breach of this Court’s own order.” She calls the report “the work product of an unconstitutional government actor” that “contains material whose disclosure would impinge upon colorable and uncontested claims of privilege and grand jury secrecy.”Judge Cannon insists that “basic fairness” mandates that the report be kept under lock and key and that she “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, at least not in a situation like this one, where the defendants contested the charges from the outset and still proclaim their innocence.”American Oversight and the Knight Foundation are now likely to redouble their efforts to appeal Judge Cannon’s ruling to the 11th Circuit — and possibly to the Supreme Court.

Judge Cannon Denounces Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago Report as ‘Brazen Stratagem’ and Blocks Its Release in Major Victory for Trump

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