It Is Happening Every Day, Every Where
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.
Jack Smith wrote that Donald Trump would have been convicted had the case been allowed to proceed and explained why he didn’t pursue charges of incitement of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
“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.
The report by the special counsel, David C. Weiss, criticized President Biden for making “baseless accusations” that threatened “the integrity of the justice system as a whole.”
Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who dismissed the classified documents case, blocked a volume about that matter from being shown to Congress but allowed the release of a volume about the election case.
Mr. Smith, a special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, had signaled that he would step down before Donald J. Trump’s inauguration.
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.
The president-elect’s defense lawyers accused the special counsel of unethical and improper behavior in his prosecutions of their client. They could be in senior Justice Department roles within weeks.