Lawyers for Donald Trump have reviewed a draft of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report related to federal investigations into the president-elect and are threatening legal action if he releases it, according to a letter included in court filings from Trump’s former co-defendants Monday night.
In the filings, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira ask Judge Aileen Cannon to block the release of the special counsel report, which was expected in the coming days before Trump is sworn in as president for the second time. The two men, who both worked for Trump and have pleaded not guilty to obstruction related crimes, argued in the filings that Smith does not have the authority to release the report because Cannon previously deemed his appointment as special counsel unlawful.
The filings included the letter from Trump’s attorneys to Attorney General Merrick Garland making similar arguments and stating that they were allowed “to review the two-volume Draft Report in a conference room at Smith’s office between January 3 and January 6, 2025.” The attorneys, two of whom have been selected by Trump for top Justice Department roles in the new administration, asked for advance notice of the report’s release so that they can “take appropriate legal action.”
In the court filings, the defense lawyers said that the government allowed them “limited-access” review of the draft over the weekend and that it “revealed a one-sided narrative arguing that the Defendants committed the crimes charged in this case.”
Garland has told Congress he plans to provide lawmakers with the report, allowing for redactions required under Justice Department policy. That would mean the Justice Department would likely redact portions of the report related to the two co-defendants since the department is seeking to continue those cases and it is prohibited from prejudicing their potential trials.
The defense attorneys, however, expressed dissatisfaction in Monday’s filings with the level of redactions in the draft that they had reviewed.
A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.
Nauta and De Oliveira are asking Cannon for an emergency hearing on the request.
While Cannon dismissed the case against them and Trump over the summer, the Justice Department is appealing her ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. Trump himself was dropped from the case, on the request of prosecutors, after his reelection last year, but the prosecution of Nauta and De Oliveira has been handed off to the US attorney’s office in South Florida.
Pointing to the possibility that the criminal prosecution against them could be revived, Nauta and De Oliveira argued Monday that the release of the report would “irreversibly and irredeemably” prejudice them as defendants. They also noted that the protective order limiting what they can say about the discovery the government has provided them remains in place.
Because the defendants are “strictly precluded form refuting the Report,” releasing it would make it “even more unfairly prejudicial,” they said.
“The Final Report is meant to serve as a Government verdict against the Defendants contrary to all criminal justice norms and constitutional guideposts,” they argued to the judge.