Cannon admits she has no authority to stop release of Jack Smith's final report on Trump's alleged election interference

Source: Law & Crime

Jan 13th, 2025, 3:56 pm


U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — who controversially dismissed the federal criminal case against Donald Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents — has acknowledged that she cannot block the Department of Justice from publicly releasing the first volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report detailing his investigation into the president-elect over allegations of election interference that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

In a five-page ruling issued Monday, Cannon conceded that she did not have the authority to block the release of the election interference portion of the report because it did not implicate the due process rights of Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.

However, Cannon remained steadfast in temporarily preventing the second volume of Smith’s report — which deals with findings in the classified documents case she is presiding over — from being released to select members of Congress.

The DOJ over the weekend twice filed court documents confirming that the first volume of the special counsel’s report would have no impact on the cases before Cannon, claiming that nothing in that part of the report “directly or indirectly refers, relies, or bears in any respect upon any evidence or argument relevant to any of the charges alleged against Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira in this case.”

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/confined-to-this-proceeding-judge-cannon-admits-she-has-no-authority-to-stop-release-of-jack-smiths-final-report-on-trumps-alleged-election-interference/