Mar-a-Lago secrets will never see the light of day. The court blocks the report on Trump's documents

Federal Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday permanently blocked the release of former special counsel Jack Smith's report into President Donald Trump's keeping of secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.

Cannon, a Trump appointee during his first term, agreed to the request of the president and his former co-defendants – butler Walt Nauta and estate manager Carlos de Oliveira.

In Monday's ruling, the judge prohibited the Justice Department from disclosing, disseminating or making available to anyone outside the department any information or conclusions contained in Volume II of the Smith Report regarding the case of Trump's retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.

Cannon said the publication of the report would constitute a “manifest injustice” to the former defendants and would cause “irreparable harm” to them. She emphasized that Smith acted without legal authority, obtaining an indictment in the case, which ultimately resulted in the discontinuance of all charges, and the defendants still enjoy the presumption of innocence.

Smith's investigation into the documents was interrupted by Cannon last year. due to her finding that Smith was illegally appointed as special prosecutor. The case was definitively closed after Trump's election victory, although Smith had hoped to provide the public with a summary of his investigation.

Jack Smith was appointed special prosecutor in 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland following the FBI's review of Mar-a-Lago. He led two investigations: into Trump's retention of secret documents after the end of his first term and into his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

In 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump on 37 charges, including 31 under the Espionage Act, for taking dozens of crates of classified materials, including top-tier military and intelligence secrets, to Mar-a-Lago and showing them to people without proper security clearances.

According to Cannon, Smith's report – which the prosecutor was expected to continue working on despite the discontinuation of the investigation against Trump – was said to have included detailed information about the case that had not been previously disclosed.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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