WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on investigations into Donald Trump as an appeals court weighs a challenge to the disclosure of a much-anticipated document just days before the president-elect reclaims office.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon may represent a short-lived victory for Trump, but it's nonetheless the latest instance of the Trump-appointed jurist taking action in the Republican's favor. The halt followed an emergency request Monday by defense lawyers to block the release of a report that they said would be one-sided and prejudicial.
Trump responded to Cannon's order by complaining anew at a news conference about Smith's investigation and saying, “It'll be a fake report just like it was a fake investigation.”
It was unclear what the Justice Department, which has its own regulations governing special counsels and the reports they are expected to produce when they conclude their own, intended to do following Cannon's order.
The two-volume report is expected to describe charging decisions made in separate investigations by Smith into Trump's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Cannon's order did not make a distinction between the two volumes, instead barring the release of any information from any report for three days after the dispute is resolved by the Atlanta -based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, unless the court orders otherwise. Smith’s team said it would file a response to the appeals court.
Trump was charged alongside two co-defendants in the classified documents case, which was dismissed in July by Cannon, who concluded that Smith's appointment was illegal. Trump was also charged in an election interference case that was significantly narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Smith's team abandoned both cases in November after Trump's presidential victory, citing Justice Department policy that prohibits the federal prosecutions of sitting presidents.
Lawyers for Trump, including Todd Blanche, who was picked by Trump to serve as his deputy attorney general, urged Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter that was made public late Monday to block the release of the report and to remove Smith from his position “promptly” — or defer the release of the report to the incoming attorney general.
Using language mimicking Trump's own attacks on Smith and his work, Blanche told Garland that the “release of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the huge sums of taxpayer money Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases.”
The letter was included as part of an emergency request filed late Monday with Cannon by lawyers for Trump's codefendants in the documents case, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira.
They asked Cannon to block the report's release, noting that Smith's appeal of her dismissal of charges against the men is pending and that the disclosure of pejorative information about them would be prejudicial.
In response to that request, Smith's team said in a two-page filing earlier Tuesday that it intended to submit its report to Garland by that afternoon and that the volume pertaining to the classified documents investigation would not be made public before 10 a.m. Friday.
Justice Department regulations call for special counsels appointed by the attorney general to submit a confidential report at the conclusion of their investigations. It's then up to the attorney general to decide what to make public.
Garland has made public in their entirety the reports produced by special counsels who operated under his watch, including Robert Hur's report on President Joe Biden's handling of classified information and John Durham's report on the FBI's Russian election interference investigation.
FILE - Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at an office of the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
ROME (AP) — An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks was freed Wednesday and returned home, after her fate had become intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer arrested in Italy and wanted by the United States.
A plane carrying Cecilia Sala, 29, landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport, where Premier Giorgia Meloni was on hand to welcome her alongside Sala’s family members. Sala’s companion, Daniele Raineri, posted a photo of a smiling Sala greeting Meloni in the airport.
Sala’s liberation marked a major diplomatic and political victory for Meloni, whose recent visit to President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat greatly enhanced her stature internationally at a time when Italy was negotiating Sala’s release.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
ROME (AP) — An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks was freed Wednesday and was heading home, after her fate had become intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer arrested in Italy and wanted by the United States.
A plane carrying Cecilia Sala, 29, left Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that she had personally informed Sala's parents.
Iranian media acknowledged the journalist’s release, citing only the foreign reports. Iranian officials offered no immediate comment.
Sala, a reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency said.
Italian commentators had speculated that Iran detained and held Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release in Italy of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days before, on Dec. 16, on a U.S. warrant.
The U.S. Justice Department has accused Abedini and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops.
Abedini remains in detention in Italy but has asked a Milan court to grant him house arrest pending an extradition hearing.
Sala’s release was met with cheers in Italy, where her plight had dominated headlines.
It came after Meloni made a surprise trip to Florida last weekend to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Meloni in a statement on X thanked “all those who helped make Cecilia’s return possible, allowing her to re-embrace her family and colleagues.”
Meloni’s visit to Trump had a strong impact on the premier's international standing, which strengthened Italy’s hand in negotiations, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said.
“Any time you can reinforce the credibility of a leader of a country at a particular moment, the stronger the country is,” he told Italy’s Sky TG24.
Sala's fate had become intertwined with that of Abedini. Each country's foreign ministry summoned the other's ambassador to demand the prisoner's release and decent detention conditions. The diplomatic tangle was particularly complicated for Italy, which is a historic ally of Washington but maintains good relations with Tehran.
Members of Meloni's cabinet took personal interest in the case given the geopolitical implications. Foreign Minister Antonio Tanaji and Crosetto hailed the diplomatic teamwork involved to secure Sala's release, which amounted to a significant domestic and diplomatic victory for Meloni.
But the release also posed a delicate political question for Italy given Abedini's status. The United States has complained in the past when Italy has lost track of suspects in the Italian judicial system awaiting hearings for extradition to the U.S.
Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, which had flagged Sala's detention as an attack on press freedom, cheered her release.
“Now the 25 journalists still held in Iranian prisons must also be released,” the group said in a social media post.
Since the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations.
In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.
Western journalists have been held in the past. Roxana Saberi, an American journalist, was detained by Iran in 2009 for around 100 days before being released.
Also detained by Iran was Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was held for more than 540 days before being released in 2016 in a prisoner swap between Iran and the U.S.
Both cases involved Iran making false espionage accusations in closed-door hearings.
Elisabetta Vernoni, mother of Cecilia Sala an Italian journalist who was detained on Dec. 19 as she was reporting in Iran, leaves Palazzo Chigi after meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in Rome, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)
