Is It Finally Time To See What Jack Smith Said About The Classified Documents Case? [View all]

HuffPost Live Updates

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals may have just moved the nation one step closer to seeing the reasoning behind former special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of now-President Donald Trump’s alleged criminal retention of classified documents.

On Tuesday, the appellate court granted the Justice Department’s request from nearly two weeks ago to drop obstruction and false statement charges leveled against two of Trump’s onetime co-defendants, his valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira.

The Justice Department, observing longstanding policy against prosecuting sitting presidents, dropped the charges in the case against Trump shortly after he won the 2024 election. Nauta and De Oliveira, however, briefly remained on the hook but just days after Trump was inaugurated, the Justice Department moved to drop their charges too. (The department also abandoned an appeal it had filed to reinstate the charges while Joe Biden was still president.)

In early January. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily barred the release of an extensive report compiled by Smith for then-Attorney General Merrick Garland explaining the special counsel’s decisions to prosecute Trump. The charges against Trump’s codefendants were still live at the time and Cannon argued publication would jeopardize the integrity of the case.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-white-house-live-updates_n_67aa443de4b0cced3687c9ec