US Department of Justice to release only part of Trump investigation report | Donald Trump News

US officials have announced plans to publish only part of a report detailing federal investigations into President-elect Donald Trump, following a court decision to block some of the findings.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice indicated that the published report would focus on the investigation of Special Counsel Jack Smith into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

However, he did not delve into a second federal investigation that looked into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents while he was out of office, after his first term ends in 2021.

The announcement means that some insight into the investigation of classified documents is unlikely to reach the public in the foreseeable future.

Trump will take office for his second term in less than two weeks, on January 20, when the Department of Justice will fall under his control.

The classified documents inquiry It was once considered the most threatening to Trump, who has been involved in a sprawling network of legal cases. He is the first president of the United States to be convicted of felony crimes.

Trump, however, has denied wrongdoing in all cases. He has repeatedly criticized the investigations as politically motivated and “bogus”.

While the classified documents section of the report will not be released to the public, the Justice Department has indicated that it will make its contents available to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Judiciary Committees. the Senate.

Those members have to agree not to make the section public while legal proceedings on the case of classified documents continue.

“This limited disclosure will serve the public interest in keeping congressional leadership informed of a significant matter within the Department while protecting the interests of defendants,” the Justice Department wrote in its court filings.

Those procedures were at the heart of the decision to cancel the publication of the classified documents section of the report.

On Tuesday, a federal judge, Aileen Cannon, temporarily blocked its releaseciting the ongoing legal battle.

While charges against Trump in the classified documents case were dropped in November, his two co-defendants — Trump employees Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira — continue to face the possibility of a criminal trial.

Nauta, an aide, and De Oliveira, a maintenance employee at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, were accused of helping the president-elect withdraw and conceal classified documents, despite a subpoena to return them.

Defense attorneys argued that releasing the report would improperly interfere with his right to a fair hearing.

The Department of Justice has not yet indicated when it would publish the other volume of the report, which focused on allegations of electoral interference.

Smith filed to drop charges in that case also in November, citing Trump’s imminent return to office. He cited the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

That case is centered on Trump’s actions in the run-up to and after the November 2020 election, when the Republican incumbent faced Democrat Joe Biden for the presidency.

Trump finally lost. But Smith and his team of federal prosecutors argued that Trump entered into a conspiracy to deceive the United States by announcing his defeat and disrupting official processes to certify the correct result.

Trump continued to falsely claim that he won the 2020 race and that his victory was denied by widespread voter fraud.

In court Wednesday, the Justice Department said Attorney General Merrick Garland had “clear” authority to release the volume of the report centered on allegations of election interference.

“Indeed, in terms of Volume One of the Final Report, the defendants are situated quite differently from any other member of the public,” the department said.

Garland, a member of outgoing President Biden’s administration, appointed Smith as a special counsel in 2022 to avoid any conflict of interest that a political mandate might have led the case.

Justice Department regulations require Smith to submit a final report to Garland.

The attorney general has said he will make public any special counsel reports he receives: He previously released a report written by Special Counsel Robert Hur on Biden’s handling of classified documents outside of public office.

Trump and his defense team, however, fought to stop the release. In a Tuesday press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump blasted Smith as a “disgrace.”

“He wanted to do a report shortly before I probably took office, so he’s going to do like a 500-page report, and it’s going to be a fake report, like the investigation was a fake investigation,” Trump said. “Why should I be allowed to write a false report?”