[FOIA Advisor Note: As Allan and Ryan noted in their commentary on the “Top Cases of 2025,” Judge Canon’s preliminary injunction barring disclosure of volume two of Jack Smith’s special counsel report, which was set to expire tomorrow, has figured prominently in ongoing FOIA cases like American Oversight v. Department of Justice, 779 F. Supp. 3d 40 (D.D.C. 2005), and N.Y. Times v. Department of Justice, No. 25-0562, 2025 WL 2549435 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 4, 2025). Judge Canon’s decision now to enter a permanent injunction will presumably keep volume two secret in perpetuity, although it seems likely that advocates for the report’s release will continue to explore legal channels for compelling disclosure.]
Judge blocks release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump classified documents case
Alanna Durkin Richer & Eric Tucker, CNN (Feb. 23, 2026)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday permanently barred the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s hoarding of classified documents that led to charges once seen as the most perilous of the four criminal cases the Republican faced.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, granted a request from the president to keep under wraps the report on an investigation alleging Trump stored sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House following his first term and obstructed government efforts to get them back.
Smith and his team produced a two-volume report on the classified documents investigation and a separate probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election after he lost to Joe Biden. Both investigations produced indictments that were abandoned by Smith’s team after Trump’s November 2024 election win in light of longstanding Justice Department legal opinions that say sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had already determined that the report was “an internal deliberative communication that is privileged and confidential and should not be released” outside the Justice Department, according to court papers. The Trump administration has characterized Smith’s investigation as politically motivated and said in recent court papers that the report belongs in the “dustbin of history.”
Cannon’s order, however, blocking the release also applies to Bondi’s successors at the Justice Department. Cannon, who in 2024 dismissed the case after concluding that Smith was unlawfully appointed after multiple other favorable rulings for Trump, said the release of the report would present a “manifest injustice” to the president and his two co-defendants.
[. . .]
Read the rest here.
