Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
A federal judge on Feb. 23 said that the final report on President Donald Trump compiled by a former special counsel shall not be released.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is based in Florida (and was appointed by President Trump),saidin a 15-page decision thatshe was granting requests from Trump and his co-defendants to keep part two of the report from former special counsel Jack Smith shielded from the public.
Cannon said that Smith wrongly forged ahead with investigating Trump and others for allegedly violating federal law by gathering and retaining sensitive documents even after sheruledhis appointment was unconstitutional and threw out the case.
“Rather than seek a stay of the Order, or clarification, Special Counsel Smith and his team chose to circumvent it, for months, by taking the discovery generated in this case and compiling it in a final report for transmission to then-Attorney General Garland, to Congress, and then beyond,” Cannon said.
“The Court need not countenance this brazen stratagem or effectively perpetuate the Special Counsel’s breach of this Court’s own order.”
“While it is true that former special counsels have released final reports at the conclusion of their work, it appears they have done so either after electing not to bring charges at all or after adjudications of guilt by plea or trial.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.”
The Department of Justice (DOJ) had appealed Cannon’s ruling, but dropped the appeal after Trump won a second term in office.
The department alsoreleasedpart of Smith’s report just before Trump began his second term.
The other part, which has not been made public, was not to be released, according to a January 2025 order from Cannon.
Source: ZeroHedge News
