Cannon keeps Jack Smith's classified records report under wraps for now [View all]

Source: The Hill

12/22/25 8:47 PM ET


U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday lifted restrictions on the release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s findings from his investigation into President Trump’s handling of classified records — but she gave the president a 60-day window to challenge her order.

Cannon did not immediately lift her order barring the Justice Department from sharing the volume of Smith’s report reviewing his probe into Trump’s alleged record mishandling with four top lawmakers, but she said it would “automatically expire” on Feb. 24. However, she selected the date in alignment with Trump and his co-defendants’ request for a minimum 60-day period to seek relief from such an order.

The judge, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, also rejected two nonpartisan watchdog groups’ bids to compel the release of the report, which covers the Mar-a-Lago investigation. Cannon said the idea that American Oversight and Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute could intervene in a criminal case because of their Freedom of Information Act interests is “unsupported by law and unprecedented in scope.”

She also rejected the notion that the report is a judicial record subject to broader public access. Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute, vowed to appeal. “This is an extraordinarily significant report about one of the most important criminal investigations in American history,” he said in a statement. “There is no legitimate reason for the report’s continued suppression and the First Amendment requires its release.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5660584-judge-cannon-lifts-report-restrictions/