An appeals court denied an emergency motion filed by two of Donald Trump’s co-defendants to prevent the release of a report on the president-elect’s felony classified documents case.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team had petitioned the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to deny the report’s release in favor of Carlos De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, and Walt Nauta, a Trump aide photographed carrying large boxes around the estate.
The court agreed with Smith’s position and ruled Thursday that the report could be released after three days.
Cannon previously dismissed Trump’s felony classified documents case by ruling Smith’s appointment unconstitutional, a decision that legal scholars have criticized and Trump has repeatedly celebrated.
Lawyers for De Oliveira and Nauta contended that allowing Smith to publish his report was a “improper attempt to remove from the district court the responsibility to oversee and control the flow of information related to a criminal trial over which it presides, and to place that role instead in the hands of the prosecuting authority.”
The lawyers also denied that there was a sense of urgency to publish the report before Trump’s inauguration later this month.
“The only counsel in this case now claiming urgency is the Attorney General, but the government’s brief does not explain this urgency,” the legal professionals wrote. “The Attorney General is an office, not a person; it will exist in perpetuity. Political activity is characterized by a false sense of urgency.
Nonetheless, their motion to block the release was denied, but the Eleventh Circuit upheld Cannon’s order enjoining the release.
U.S. attorneys said Wednesday that the report would not be made public, but would be available to members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, which defense lawyers said could lead to leaks.
Attorney General Merrick Garland can now publicly release the report on Sunday.
De Oliveira pleaded not guilty to allegedly assisting Trump in deleting security footage, while Nauta pleaded not guilty to moving the boxes (a difficult decision because he was photographed again).
