FORT PIERCE, Fla.—Judge Aileen Cannon today rejected an effort by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University to compel the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report concerning President Trump’s alleged unlawful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left office in 2021. The court also granted motions by President Trump and his former codefendants to permanently prohibit the report’s release. 

“Judge Cannon's decision to permanently block the release of this extraordinarily significant report is impossible to square with the First Amendment and the common law,” said Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight Institute. “There is no legitimate basis for its continued suppression.”

Today’s ruling would permanently bar the report’s release, largely based on Judge Cannon’s view that Special Counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed when he prepared it. The court denied the defendants’ request to order the report destroyed.

“A major purpose of the First Amendment is to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment protects the public’s right of access to documents filed in connection with criminal trials,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight Institute. “Given the significance of the Special Counsel’s report, and the role it played in earlier proceedings before Judge Cannon, there is really no question that both the common law and the First Amendment require the report’s release.”

Earlier this month, the Knight Institute asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to reverse an earlier order by Judge Cannon refusing to release the Special Counsel’s report. The Institute also filed a separate motion in the district court explaining that Judge Cannon lacks jurisdiction to order the report’s destruction and that she has been divested of authority over issues relating to the report in light of the Institute’s pending appeal before the Eleventh Circuit. The appeal stems from a motion filed by the Institute last year requesting that Judge Cannon lift an injunction prohibiting the Department of Justice from releasing the Special Counsel’s report. The Institute also asked Judge Cannon to post the report on the court’s public docket, arguing that the First Amendment and common law guarantee the public a right of access to records submitted in connection with criminal proceedings. 

Read today’s decision here. 

Read more about the case here.

Lawyers on the case include Scott Wilkens, Jameel Jaffer, Alex Abdo, and Noah Kim for the Knight First Amendment Institute, and David Buckner for Buckner & Miles.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected]