House Democrats urge Garland to 'take all necessary steps' to release Jack Smith's report on Trump classified docs case

Source: ABC News

January 16, 2025, 5:13 AM


Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are urging outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland to "take all necessary steps" to release special counsel Jack Smith's report on Donald Trump's handling of classified documents -- and they're encouraging him to drop the remaining charges against the president-elect's former co-defendants in order to do so.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who earlier this week allowed the Justice Department to release the first volume of Smith's report, which covers his election interference case against Trump, has temporarily blocked the release of the second volume covering the classified documents case due to the DOJ's ongoing prosecution of longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago staffer Carlos De Oliveira, Trump's former co-defendants in the case.

"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, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira," the 18 Democratic committee members wrote in a letter obtained by ABC News.

Cannon, who last year threw out Trump's classified documents case, plans to hold a hearing Friday on whether to make the Volume Two of Smith's report available to leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Because the Justice Department has said it will not publicly release the second volume of the report while charges are pending against Nauta and De Oliviera, the Democrats, led by ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, called on Garland to dismiss the charges ahead of Trump's inauguration next Monday.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/house-democrats-urge-garland-steps-release-jack-smiths/story?id=117729318