After reading special counsel Jack Smith’s draft report detailing the findings of his two investigations of the incoming president, Donald Trump's attorneys are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to fire Smith and block the report’s release. Justice Department rules say special counsels must submit reports explaining their legal decisions as an investigation ends. Garland has indicated he would make public any special counsel report, with necessary redactions. Trump’s lawyers say releasing the two-volume report days before their client is sworn in as president would be disruptive for his transition, said a letter to Garland included in a motion filed in Florida federal court, reports the Washington Post. “Releasing Smith’s report is obviously not in the public interest — particularly in light of President Trump’s commanding victory in the election and the sensitive nature of the ongoing transition process,” said Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro.
Trump’s lawyers made a similar argument in their attempt to cancel the president-elect’s sentencing this Friday in his New York state criminal conviction for falsifying documents related to a hush money payment before the 2016 election. The letter from Trump’s lawyers to Garland was included in a filing by Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, Trump’s co-defendants in Smith’s case accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. The other investigation overseen by Smith accused Trump of illegally trying to block the 2020 election results. Nauta and De Oliveira asked the judge in the Florida case, Aileen Cannon, to block the release of Smith’s report, citing her decision last year to dismiss that case after she ruled Smith was unlawfully appointed. It is unclear whether Cannon would have authority to intervene in Garland’s decision on whether to release the report.
Comments