Aileen Cannon’s Ruling Blocking Jack Smith’s Report is Factually Wrong

The Trump-appointed judge said the DOJ has never before released a report prior to the end of criminal proceedings. It has.

In this image from video provided by the U.S. Senate, Aileen M. Cannon speaks remotely during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight nomination hearing to be U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Federal Judge Aileen Cannon has repeatedly intervened to block the release of Jack Smith’s report. AP

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon blocked the Justice Department from allowing a small, bipartisan group of legislators to review Jack Smith’s findings on Donald Trump’s stash of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago by claiming such a disclosure was unprecedented.

“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 order on Tuesday.

She is wrong.