US Special Counsel Jack Smith has resigned from the Justice Department after submitting his investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump, an expected move that comes amid legal disputes over how much of that document can be released in the coming days.
The department revealed Smith’s departure in a lawsuit on Saturday, saying he resigned one day earlier. The resignation, 10 days before Trump’s inauguration, follows the conclusion of two unsuccessful criminal trials against Trump that were withdrawn after Trump won the White House in November.
The debate is now over the fate of a two-volume report prepared by Smith and his team on their dual investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of his 2020 election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.
The Justice Department was expected to release the document in the final days of the Biden administration, but the Trump-appointed judge who presided over the classified documents case granted the defense’s request to halt its publication at least temporarily. Two of Trump’s co-defendants in that case, Trump’s valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago’s real estate manager Carlos de Oliveira, said publishing the report would be unfairly prejudicial, an argument joined by Trump’s legal team.
The ministry responded by saying it would withhold the folder of classified documents from public release as long as criminal proceedings against Nauta and de Oliveira remained pending. Although US District Judge Eileen Cannon dismissed the case last July, Smith’s team’s appeal of that decision regarding the other defendants remained pending.
Newly revealed evidence from the Donald Trump election conspiracy case shows an alleged plan to get election officials to declare Trump the winner of the 2020 election.
But prosecutors said they intend to move forward with publicizing the extent of election interference.
In an emergency motion late Friday, they asked the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to quickly lift an injunction from Cannon preventing them from publishing any part of the report. They separately told Cannon on Saturday that she did not have the authority to stop publication of the report, but she responded with an order directing prosecutors to file an additional brief by Sunday.
An appeals court on Thursday night rejected an emergency defense bid to block the release of the election interference report, which covers Trump’s efforts before the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, to undo the results of the 2020 election. But it maintained Cannon’s injunction that said it could not be released. None of the results until three days after the matter is settled by the Court of Appeal.
The Justice Department told the appeals court in its emergency motion that Cannon’s order was “manifestly wrong.”
“The Attorney General is the Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice and has the authority to supervise all officials and employees of the Department,” the Justice Department said. “The Attorney General therefore has the authority to decide whether to publish the investigation report prepared by his subordinates.”
Justice Department regulations call for special counsels to submit reports at the conclusion of their work, and it is customary for such documents to be released regardless of the subject matter.
William Barr, the attorney general during Trump’s first term, released a special counsel report examining Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and possible ties to the Trump campaign.
Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, also released reports to the special counsel, including reports on Biden’s handling of classified information before Biden became president.
https://i.cbc.ca/1.7183233.1732567680!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/jack-smith.jpg?im=Resize%3D620
Source link