CNN
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Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday extended the stay she imposed to prevent the Justice Department from sharing with members of Congress special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into the president’s mishandling of classified documents Donald Trump.
Her order took some jabs at prosecutors representing former Attorney General Merrick Garland, accusing them of misleading her during a court hearing Friday and saying they had failed to live up to the “role special” that they play in the criminal case. judicial system.
Before Trump’s inauguration, Garland sought to share the report privately with a small group of lawmakers on the condition that they not disclose what they learned from it.
On Tuesday, Cannon embraced arguments made by Trump’s former co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira — two of his employees charged with obstruction-related crimes — that even limited disclosure could harm them if their business were one day judged. Cannon dismissed the charges last summer on the grounds that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed, but that decision is under appeal, leaving open the possibility that the charges could be revived.
“The mere desire of an attorney general with a ‘limited’ mandate to comply with a non-existent ‘historical practice’ of publishing special counsel reports pending criminal proceedings is not a valid reason,” he said. writes Cannon.
“And it certainly does not outweigh the obvious constitutional interests of the defendants in this action and the duty of this Court to protect the integrity of these proceedings.”
This story is breaking and will be updated.
