A federal judge slammed special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday and accused his office of seeking to deny former co-defendants of President Trump a fair trial by releasing a final report on the classified documents case.
In a scathing, 14-page signed order, Southern Florida US District Judge Aileen Cannon took Smith to task for seeking to disclose details of his probe into the classified documents case to members of Congress.
“Never before has the Department of Justice, prior to the conclusion of criminal proceedings against a defendant — and absent a litigation-specific reason as appropriate in the case itself — sought to disclose outside the Department a report prepared by a Special Counsel containing substantive and voluminous case information. Until now,” Cannon wrote.
“Meanwhile, on the other side of the balance, there are two individuals in this action, each with constitutional rights to a fair trial, who remain subject to a live criminal appeal of this Court’s Order Dismissing the Superseding Indictment,” she said, referring to Trump co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.