Democrats Demand Release Of Special Counsel’s Report On Classified Documents Case

WASHINGTON ― Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Thursday demanded U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland release the Department of Justice report on President-elect Donald Trump’s hoarding of classified documents.

The Justice Department on Tuesday released special counsel Jack Smith’s final report outlining Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, but the second volume of his report has been held up.

“The American people now deserve the opportunity to read Volume 2 of Special Counsel Smith’s report, which explains how President Trump knowingly retained hundreds of presidential and highly classified records at his Mar-a-Lago club and then deliberately defied subpoenas, obstructed law enforcement, hid evidence, and lied about his continuing retention of these records,” Raskin wrote in his letter, which was obtained by HuffPost.

Citing longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president, Smith dropped both cases against Trump in November after Trump won reelection to the White House.

Special counsel regulations require a final report after a case wraps up, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida, who dismissed the classified documents case last summer, has held up the release of the reports. One obstacle to disseminating the report on the classified documents is that Trump’s co-defendants ― aides who allegedly helped him obstruct a federal investigation ― could still face separate charges.

Raskin and his colleagues urged Garland to forget about prosecuting the co-defendants if that would help get the report released before Trump returns to the White House on Monday and can then bury the report forever.

“As Attorney General, it is incumbent upon you to take all necessary steps to ensure the report is released before the end of your tenure, including, if necessary, by simply dismissing the remaining criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s co-conspirators,” the Democrats wrote.

Though the indictment against Trump for retaining classified material detailed the government’s evidence, the Democrats suspect Smith’s report would provide more information about why Trump illegally held on to top secret material after he left the White House in January 2021.

“It is essential that the American people and Congress understand how Mr. Trump mishandled our nation’s most sensitive classified information, especially because he will be sworn in as Commander-in-Chief and take leadership of our national security apparatus in just five days,” they wrote.

In his report on his prosecution of Trump for trying to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, Smith said he would have won the case if it had gone to trial. And in a letter to Garland accompanying the report, Smith got in a last word at Trump, saying the “claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.”