The US Justice Department has released part of a report from a special prosecutor who alleged that Donald Trump illegally tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The 137-page document was sent to Congress after Judge Aileen Cannon cleared the way for the first of two parts of Smith’s report on the election interference case to be released.
She ordered a hearing later in the week on whether to release the part of the report on allegations that Trump illegally kept classified government documents.
The special counsel, Jack Smith, resigned from his post last week.
The president-elect takes office on 20 January.
Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the US Justice Department investigations into Trump. Special counsels are chosen by the department in cases where there is a potential conflict of interest.
Trump was accused of illegally keeping documents and, in some cases, storing them in rooms at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, his residence which he owns. In the interference case, he was accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election result.
Both cases resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who pleaded not guilty and sought to cast the prosecutions as politically motivated.
But Smith closed the cases after Trump’s election in November, in accordance with Justice Department regulations that forbid the prosecution of a sitting president.
Since then, there’s been a legal back-and-forth over the material related to the cases.
Last week, Judge Cannon put a temporary stop on releasing the whole Smith report, over concerns that it could affect the cases of two Trump associates charged with him in the classified documents case.
Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago , are accused of helping Trump hide the documents.
Unlike Trump’s, their cases are still pending – and their lawyers argued that the release of Smith’s report could prejudice a future jury and trial.
