Drop Trump ally charges and release full classified documents report: Democrats
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Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
A group of House Democrats want Attorney General Merrick Garland to release special counsel Jack Smith's report on President-elect Trump's classified documents case — even if it means dismissing charges against his former co-defendants.
Why it matters: It's an escalation from Democrats who are pushing to make Smith's findings public while Trump has vigorously fought to block the Justice Department from releasing the report.
- Smith, who recently resigned, dropped the two federal cases against Trump after he won the election, citing a long-standing DOJ policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
- Smith said Trump undertook an "unprecedented criminal effort" to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a report released Tuesday.
- But Garland said he would not release the volume on Trump's handling of classified documents because the cases against Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were charged alongside the president-elect, are ongoing.
Driving the news: In a letter to Garland released Thursday, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin and other Democrats on the panel told Garland that it is "it is incumbent upon you to take all necessary steps to ensure the report is released before the end of your tenure."
- Those steps include, if necessary, "simply dismissing the remaining criminal charges against Mr. Trump's co-conspirators," they argue.
- The "many indications" Trump would end the prosecutions and instruct his DOJ to "bury this report" once in office outweigh concerns that the Nauta and De Oliveira may "keep enabling the corruption of their superiors" if the charges against them are dropped, the lawmakers wrote.
- The letter concluded, "[T]o the extent the tangential charges against Mr. Nauta and Mr. De Oliveira stand in the way of the overriding imperative of transparency and truth, the interests of justice demand that their cases be dismissed now so that the entirety of Special Counsel Smith's report can be released to the American people."
- The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Catch up quick: Trump was indicted in June 2023 on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after the end of his first term.
- But Judge Aileen Cannon, who critics accused of intentionally slow-walking the historic proceedings, dismissed the case in July, siding with Trump's attorneys by saying Smith's appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
- Smith appealed the decision but dropped it after Trump's election victory and moved to drop him as a co-defendant in the case.
Zoom out: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last week ruled the Justice Department could publish the full reports after Cannon briefly blocked their release.
- However, Garland said in a Jan. 8 filing that he would not release the report on Trump's handling of classified documents to "avoid any risk of prejudice" to Trump's co-defendants.
- He wrote that "for the time being," the chair and ranking members of House and Senate Judiciary Committees could view the reports in private.
Go deeper: READ: Jack Smith's final report on Trump's Jan. 6 case
