A federal judge has moved one step closer to allowing the public release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office—but the outcome is still far from certain.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said she would lift her yearlong block on the report’s release starting February 24. Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, had previously prevented the Justice Department from making the report public while the case was still active.
However, her order leaves the door wide open for new legal challenges. Cannon made it clear that the proposed timeline is not final and could be overridden if Trump or his former aides—Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira—argue successfully that the report should never be released at all. In other words, even with a date on the calendar, publication is not guaranteed.
The backdrop to this dispute is Cannon’s earlier decision to dismiss the entire classified documents case. She ruled that Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed as special counsel, a conclusion that immediately reshaped the legal landscape. Although the Justice Department initially appealed that ruling, the appeal was still pending when Trump returned to the White House. Prosecutors later abandoned the appeal and formally dropped all charges against Trump and his co-defendants.
Just days before Trump’s inauguration, Cannon again sided with the former president by rejecting Justice Department efforts to publish Smith’s findings. Trump’s legal team has argued that if Smith’s appointment was unlawful, then any report produced under that authority should remain permanently sealed.
Smith, meanwhile, testified before Congress last week about his role as special counsel. Even so, he is legally restricted from discussing the full scope of his investigation due to strict rules governing grand jury secrecy.
As things stand, the public may soon gain access to one of the most closely watched investigative reports in recent U.S. political history—but only if fresh legal challenges don’t stop it first.
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