By Devan Cole, NCS
(NCS) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s closing report on Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified data and obstruction of justice at Mar-a-Lago after his first time period won’t be launched, a Trump-appointed judge in Florida dominated Monday.
The choice by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who threw out the case Smith introduced towards the president earlier than he was re-elected, is a serious win in Trump’s efforts to maintain the particular counsel’s findings eternally hidden from public view.
Smith had turned over his closing, two-quantity report to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier than he left his publish in early 2025. The first a part of the report, which detailed Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election, was launched earlier than Trump returned to the White House. But a authorized combat waged by Trump and his co-defendants within the case saved the second a part of that report under seal.
Cannon mentioned in her 15-web page ruling that “it is certainly not customary” for a prosecutor whose case was thrown out to later be allowed to “publicly disseminate large swaths of discovery generated in the case.”
“The Court 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,” she wrote.
Cannon, who concluded in 2024 that Smith was unlawfully serving as particular counsel, went on to chide him for even writing the report within the first place, saying it violated her earlier selections placing an finish to the work of his workplace on the classified documents matter.
“The Court need not countenance this brazen stratagem or effectively perpetuate the Special Counsel’s breach of this Court’s own order,” she wrote.
Cannon declined a request from two of Trump’s former co-defendants within the case to order the report to be destroyed.
Trump’s private lawyer, Kendra Wharton, mentioned in an announcement that Cannon was proper to “permanently prohibit the release of Volume II of Jack Smith’s illegal report,” including that “all fruit of Smith’s poisonous tree should be treated accordingly and should never see the light of day.”
Transparency round Smith’s closing report on the South Florida federal case towards Trump and two of his workers, referred to as Volume II, continues to be being examined in appeals introduced by public transparency teams.
One of these teams, American Oversight, mentioned Cannon’s newest ruling “continues a troubling pattern of decisions that shield the president from public scrutiny and place secrecy above the public’s right to know.”
“American taxpayers funded this investigation, and they have a right to know what their government uncovered, particularly on matters of national security,” Chioma Chukwu, the group’s govt director, mentioned in an announcement.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.