Attorneys for former President Donald Trump are using a daring legal maneuver, asking to see the final report drafted by Special Counsel Jack Smith on Trump’s conduct related to probes into high-profile allegations he helped spur the efforts to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Trump’s lawyers argue that releasing the report would violate their client’s right to a fair trial in ongoing and potential legal proceedings. “This report is a partisan attempt to tarnish the reputation of President Trump,” said a statement from the team. They argue that the report is “replete with speculation and unsubstantiated claims” and its release could prejudice public opinion and any future jurors.
He is a special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice to investigate whether claims of misconduct relating to the January 6 insurrection raised by Trump following the results of the 2020 elections are credible. Most notably, this involves interviewing hundreds of senior officials, reviewing documents, and holding grand jury hearings. While the report’s contents are certainly confidential in that it is a draft, people close to the investigation have said that it provides an incredibly detailed textual image for what President Trump was thinking and doing after the contentious elections.
The Trump team’s motion to block the report raises constitutional and procedural concerns. Legal experts point out that while the Department of Justice is not required to make special counsel reports public, such reports have previously been released to ensure transparency in cases of national importance. Mueller’s report on Russian interference into the 2016 election was released in part, with heavy redactions for sensitive material.
Rivals of the Trump legal plan argue that lawyers try to cover some pieces of information that may deliver a damaging blow. “This is about accountability,” said one legal analyst. “The public has a need to understand the findings of an investigation that relates to the integrity of our democratic process.”
The Justice Department has not responded to the legal action but will likely respond, arguing that its probe is an essential exercise in transparency in an investigation of this nature.
The Trump motion will thus be decided by the court in a matter of a few weeks’ time. There remains uncertainty about the report’s release, but legal wranglings highlight a much larger controversy of the legal battles faced by Trump after a presidency and what this means for American democracy.
