Trump Declares ‘Enough Is Enough,’ Wants Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago Report Destroyed in ‘Constitutional Expungement’

President Trump’s latest brief to Judge Aileen Cannon in the Southern District of Florida is a broadside aimed squarely at irrevocably “destroying all copies” of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on the Mar-a-Lago prosecution that, had Mr. Smith had his way, would have sent the president to prison. “Enough is enough” write the 47th president’s lawyers with respect to Mr. Smith’s opus. The filing comes in response to the unrelenting effort by two left-leaning legal groups, American Oversight and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, to push the report into the public ken. Mr. Trump is being joined in his effort to thwart disclosure by his two employees and co-defendants — the valet Waltine Nauta and the property manager, Carlos De Oliveira.Judge Cannon, an appointee of Mr. Trump who disqualified Mr. Smith and dismissed the charges against all three defendants, has set a deadline of February 24 to decide the fate of the dispatch. The groups pushing for its release, though, want the 11th United States Appeals Circuit, which oversees Judge Cannon, to intervene and order the report’s release. Attorney General Pam Bondi calls the document “illicit” and would consign it to the “dustbin of history.”Messrs. Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira are demanding that the report, which Mr. Smith submitted to Attorney General Merrick Garland days before the end of President Biden’s term, undergo “constitutional expungement” — meaning total destruction. The erstwhile defendants accuse Knight and American Oversight of disregarding “clearly established legal standards.” The groups are eager to wrest the case away from Judge Cannon.Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Kendra Wharton, who briefly served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice in early 2025, and previously had worked with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at a white shoe law firm, writes that “it cannot be the rule that nonparties like Knight Institute and American Oversight may deprive a district court of its jurisdiction simply by seeking to intervene in a criminal case and appealing when properly denied.” Knight and American Oversight, though, claim “statutory, common law, and First Amendment” rights to see the report, which the special counsel regulations mandate be created, on a “confidential” basis, at the end of the special counsel’s work. Discretion as to whether to release the report is assigned to the attorney general. Mr. Garland released Mr. Smith’s January 6 report in full, but Judge Cannon blocked him from publishing this one.The jurist reckoned that publishing the document would injure the due process rights of the defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case, which was then being appealed to the 11th Circuit following Judge Cannon’s dismissal of the charges. Once Mr. Trump regained the White House, though, he directed the DOJ to withdraw that appeal, and the prosecution was dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning that it could be refiled in the future.The report’s tone likely mirrors that of the election interference summary, which struck a defiant note dispute that case also having been dismissed following adverse legal rulings — the Supreme Court’s immunity decision in Trump v. United States — and Mr. Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Smith wrote that he would have convicted Mr. Trump “but for” the outcome of the 2024 election.The special counsel projected that same certainty in his two sessions before Congress, where he accused Mr. Trump of a “criminal scheme” and declared that he adduced evidence of his guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Mr. Smith, though, largely refused to answer questions about the Mar-a-Lago case because of Judge Cannon’s order blocking the publication of his dossier. The executive director of the Knight Institute, says in a statement 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.” If Judge Cannon orders the report destroyed, though, it is unclear how an appeal would be effective. That urgency is why the group is pushing for what the law calls an “extraordinary” remedy — a writ of mandamus whereby a higher court commands a lower one. Here, that would involve the 11th Circuit ordering Judge Cannon not to consign the report to oblivion pending further litigation, possibly at the Supreme Court.

Trump Declares ‘Enough Is Enough,’ Wants Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago Report Destroyed in ‘Constitutional Expungement’

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