Appeals court declines to block release of special counsel report on Trump cases

A federal appeals court said Thursday that it would not block the Justice Department from releasing a report by special counsel Jack Smith on the two now-closed investigations he conducted into President-elect Donald J. Trump.

In a brief and unsigned order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta rejected an urgent request from Mr. Trump’s legal team to block the report’s release.

The move is part of a complicated back-and-forth battle in the final days before Mr. Trump is set to become president again over whether at least parts of Mr. Smith’s report will ever be made public. The order does not necessarily mean that the report will be published immediately.

Both sections of Mr. Smith’s two-volume report remain in place for now, subject to an injunction issued this week by a lower court judge in Florida temporarily blocking their publication.

The Justice Department has already said it wants to withhold the release of the tape of the Florida case in which Mr. Trump was accused of misusing classified documents after he left office.

But the department has said it wants to release the other volume detailing Mr. Smith’s decisions in the case he filed in Washington accusing Mr. Trump of seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

In its order Thursday evening, the appeals court left the injunction in effect but said the Justice Department could take further steps to appeal it. Later Thursday, prosecutors appealed that injunction and referred the question to the appeals court as to whether it should be overturned.

Whatever the case, the preliminary injunction issued by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who oversaw the classified documents case, is scheduled to last only three days.

If it expires on its own or is invalidated by the appeals court, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland could move forward with plans to release the portion of Mr. Smith’s report on the election interference case.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s lawyers could continue to try to stop or delay the release of the report by asking the Supreme Court to intervene.

Mr. Smith was forced to drop both criminal cases after Mr. Trump won the 2024 election because of a Justice Department directive that sitting presidents should be temporarily immune from prosecution while in office.

While that meant Mr. Trump had already largely won the legal battle, a final dispute emerged over whether the public will see any part of Mr. Smith’s reporting on his investigative findings and prosecutorial decisions. Pursuant to department regulations, he is required to provide this information to Mr. Garland.

The Justice Department has said that Mr. Garland has no intention of releasing the volume of the classified documents case because charges are still pending against two of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants. Prosecutors have acknowledged that it would not be fair to the men to disclose the special counsel’s decision-making in the case because it could affect their right to a fair trial.

It is widely believed that the new government will likely end this case entirely, either by pardoning the co-defendants or simply dropping the case. But it would then be up to Mr. Trump’s appointees whether to release that portion of the report that Mr. Trump’s legal team has worked to suppress.