Pam Bondi Rolls Back Leak Inquiry Constraint Stemming From Fox News Case
The Justice Department’s new rules for leak inquiries make it easier for investigators to bypass a legal restriction on search warrants to seize news gathering records.
It Is Happening Every Day, Every Where
The Justice Department’s new rules for leak inquiries make it easier for investigators to bypass a legal restriction on search warrants to seize news gathering records.
Judge Aileen M. Cannon said prosecutors should not be allowed to share the report outside the Justice Department, adding that it contained information that had not been made public.
The decision by Judge Aileen M. Cannon not to issue an immediate ruling raised the possibility that President-elect Donald J. Trump would take office in the meantime and have power over the report’s release.
The Justice Department now enters a second Trump administration with less authority to pursue a president than it has had in half a century.
“But for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” the report said.
But the court left in place an injunction that bars the Justice Department from disclosing the report for another three days.
In a court filing, the department indicated that the report by the special counsel, Jack Smith, may not be made public before Donald J. Trump takes office, raising the prospect that the new administration will bury it.
Both the Justice Department and the judge who oversaw the case were asked to stop the public release of the report.
The facility in Fulton County, Georgia, has long had problems with assaults, drugs and pests.