US judge bars release of special counsel's Trump classified documents report

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - A federal judge on Monday prohibited the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on President Donald Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of justice after he left office in 2021.

The decision from US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, is a blow to groups that had long sought to have it released to the public.

The report is the second volume produced by Smith. The first concerned Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. That section was released in January 2025, in the last days of Biden’s one-term presidency.

Trump fought in court to prevent the release of the second volume concerning his alleged mishandling of classified government records after he left office as well as his efforts to obstruct federal investigators that sought to retrieve them from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Cannon previously ruled in July 2024 that Smith's appointment by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland was unconstitutional. In her ruling, she rebuked Smith for writing the report, saying it was a "brazen" violation of an order she previously issued.

She further assailed the decision to allow Smith to write the report, writing that "it is certainly not customary for a prosecutor, who obtains an indictment and initiates a criminal prosecution that is later dismissed in a final order without an adjudication of guilt, 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," Cannon wrote in her 15-page order.

Smith has said the only reason Trump did not stand trial is that he won a return term at the White House. In volume one of the report, Smith argued that the evidence against Trump was "sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

American Oversight, one of the groups that sued for the report's release, said it would continue to pursue its publication after Cannon's ruling, which it said "ensured that the public is denied information of extraordinary national importance."

"Judge Cannon’s ruling continues a troubling pattern of decisions that shield the president from public scrutiny and place secrecy above the public’s right to know,” Chioma Chukwu, the group's executive director, said in a statement.

"American taxpayers funded this investigation, and they have a right to know what their government uncovered, particularly on matters of national security. We will continue using every tool available to force this information into the open and to defend the public’s right to the truth through the release of this report," she added.

The sentiment was echoed by the Knight First Amendment Institute, which also sued for the publication of the report.

"There is no legitimate basis for its continued suppression," the institute said.