Lawyers for Donald Trump and his former co-defendants are trying to block the “imminent” release of a final report by special counsel Jack Smith following his prosecution of the president-elect for his attempts to overturn election results and his withholding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago compound.
An anticipated report follows Smith’s November decision to effectively end the cases altogether after a years-long attempt to prosecute Trump for alleged crimes spelled out in hundreds of pages of evidence.
The two federal cases against Trump have ended, but prosecutors are still trying to move forward with the charges against his co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira in the Mar-a-Lago case.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers filed a motion demanding Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop Smith from releasing the report — and to fire Smith immediately.
They also called Smith an “out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor” aiming to harm Trump politically.
“Accordingly, because Smith has proposed an unlawful course of action, you must countermand his plan and remove him promptly,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro wrote.
“If Smith is not removed, then the handling of his report should be deferred to President Trump’s incoming attorney general, consistent with the expressed will of the People,” they added.
Smith had planned to resign sometime before Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
The special counsel is preparing a “two-volume confidential report” for the attorney general, Smith wrote in a court filing on Tuesday.
Smith wrote that Garland will not release the volume pertaining to the Mar-a-Lago case — “if he does at all” — before 10 a.m. January 10.
He is expected to transmit that volume to the attorney general’s office Tuesday.
Trump’s attorneys said they had briefly reviewed a draft of the report over the weekend in Smith’s office in Washington, D.C.
They wrote that the report described the efforts to upend the 2020 election as an “unprecedented criminal effort,” and that Trump, “the head of the criminal conspiracies,” harbored a “criminal design,” all of which they said was false.
The lawyers argued that releasing the report would violate Trump’s presidential “immunity” as issued by the Supreme Court — echoing legal arguments from his legal team to block his conviction and sentencing in his so-called hush money case in New York. Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on January 10.
Trump’s attorneys also argued that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed to his role, reviving their successful arguments that led Trump-appointed District Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss the classified documents case.
“The Final Report promises to be a one-sided, slanted report, relying nearly exclusively on evidence presented to a grand jury and subject to all requisite protections — and which is known to Smith only as a result of his unconstitutional appointment — in order to serve a singular purpose: convincing the public that everyone Smith charged is guilty of the crimes charged,” the lawyers wrote.
Smith could not immediately be reached for comment by The Independent.
Special counsels are required under Justice Department regulations to produce reports detailing their findings and charging decisions.
Trump pleaded not guilty to charges filed against him in Florida accusing him of mishandling classified documents taken from the White House after he left office, and then obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
Federal prosecutors are still appealing Cannon’s dismissal of the charges against Nauta and De Oliveira.
The president-elect was also charged with conspiracy and obstruction for his attempts to subvert the 2020 election.
