Judge Aileen Cannon won't let lawmakers see Mar-a-Lago documents report

U.S. District judge Aileen Cannon has denied a request by the Department of Justice to share former special counsel Jack Smith's classified documents report with Congress.

The DOJ under outgoing president Joe Biden had requested that the second volume of Smith's report be shared with lawmakers, but the Florida-based judge granted a request by Donald Trump's co-defendants in the case to prevent the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary committees from obtaining the evidence, reported CBS News.

"Never before has the Department of Justice, prior to the conclusion of criminal proceedings against a defendant — and absent a litigation-specific reason as appropriate in the case itself — sought to disclose outside the Department a report prepared by a Special Counsel containing substantive and voluminous case information. Until now," Cannon wrote in her 14-page order.

Smith earlier this month submitted the two-volume report covering alleged criminal acts by Donald Trump to former attorney general Merrick Garland, who released the volume related to the president-elect's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss but prevented the second volume from becoming public because proceedings were still ongoing against co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira.

The then-attorney general said that report would be available to the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, but only if they agreed not to share any information about the findings.

"With respect to the Department’s assertion of congressional interest in Volume II, there has been no subpoena by Congress for review or release of Volume II," Cannon wrote. "There is no record of an official request by members of Congress for in camera review of Volume II as proposed by the Department in this case. There is, however, a recent letter by some of those same members urging Attorney General Garland to release Volume II to the public immediately, even if doing so requires dismissal of the charges as to Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira."