Judge Cannon paves the way for potential release of Part 1 of special counsel’s report

Florida district judge Aileen Cannon has paved the way for the Justice Department to release the first part of a special counsel’s inquiry into President-elect Donald Trump, covering the investigation and charges against Trump tied to the 2020 presidential election.

Cannon denied a motion by Trump’s former co-defendants who sought to block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the election interference case.

The DOJ has been fighting in court about whether it is allowed to publicly release a final report from Smith about his cases against Trump. Such a report is an obligatory part of the special counsel’s work, and may be the last chance for prosecutors to explain their decisions after they dropped the federal cases against Trump after he won the election. Trump was charged with election interference in Washington, D.C., and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and refusing to return them to the FBI.

The DOJ agreed not to publicly release volume two of its report, about the classified documents case, to avoid interfering with an ongoing case against two other defendants. But it wants to release the first volume, covering the investigation and charges against Trump tied to the 2020 presidential election.

Last week Cannon, a Trump appointee, temporarily blocked the DOJ from releasing the entirety of Jack Smith’s report until a federal appeals court resolves the legal fight.

Trump has also argued the special counsel was appointed unlawfully and that any public report would be legally invalid and hurt his transition into the White House.

Lawyers could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the report’s release.