WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department is prohibited from releasing details about the investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida is another victory for Trump and a blow to advocates who have sought to make public a report done by special counsel Jack Smith regarding the case he brought against Trump over the handling of classified documents.
Smith’s team of prosecutors secured an indictment of Trump in 2023 over allegations he illegally retained classified documents and obstructed justice after his first term as president. The case was dismissed after Cannon ruled that Smith was illegally appointed. However, Smith also wrote a report detailing his investigative findings.
“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 the 15-page ruling.
Cannon, a Trump appointee to the bench, previously ruled in favor of the president to keep the report secret. But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear arguments from two public-interest advocacy groups that want the report made public.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Cannon’s new order will mean for the pending appeal. She also issued a separate order Monday denying a request the groups made asking her not to rule on whether to keep the report secret while the appeal was pending.
One of Trump’s personal aides and a property manager at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, also were indicted for obstruction of justice. Trump and his former co-defendants have argued the report shouldn’t be released because it contains privileged information.
Smith also secured an indictment of Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. However, Smith dropped the prosecution after Trump was reelected in 2024. Smith has since left the Justice Department.
