In the days before returning to office, President-elect Donald Trump launched an aggressive campaign to suppress the release of DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report, which detailed the decision to charge him in two federal criminal cases.
Trump’s lawyers, including his Deputy Attorney General nominee, Todd Blanche, additionally sought to stop the prosecution from making evidence public and Trump’s co-defendants filed court papers requesting Judge Aileen Cannon issue an emergency order blocking the report’s public release.
Despite the routine release of such a report by special counsels to explain charging decisions, Trump’s attorneys argued in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that its release would be “unlawful” and that publishing the report would be a political act.
The 12-page letter from Trump’s lawyers said, in part, “We write on behalf of President Trump to demand that Smith terminate all efforts toward the preparation and release of this report.”
Trump was indicted on 37 felony counts of mishandling classified documents and another four counts of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The timing was particularly significant, with Trump’s inauguration scheduled for January 20, 2025. Following his electoral victory in November 2024, Smith moved to dismiss the election interference case, citing Department of Justice policy against prosecuting sitting presidents, while the classified documents case had already been dismissed months earlier by a judicial ruling.
