In 7 days, Donald Trump will be sworn in as president of the United States.
And, if that happens before former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the former president’s conduct in and around January 6 comes out, we will NEVER see it.
Because Trump will be in charge of the Department of Justice. And he will simply say “kill it.” And it will be killed.
Which means that Democrats have a little under a week to see if they can make the report public. Which is not much time.
What’s happening at the moment is a game of cat and mouse between Trump’s lawyers and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Consider what’s happened in the last week alone:
On Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon, who has handled the classified documents case, blocked the DOJ from releasing the report until the 11th District Court of Appeals had heard the Trump side’s argument to keep the report private.
That same day, Smith delivered a two-volume report to Garland — on both the January 6 indictment as well as his indictment of Trump for retaining classified documents after leaving the White House.
On Thursday night, the 11th District okayed the release of the report and/but let Cannon’s order barring it from release to stand.
On Friday, Smith, as expected, resigned a special counsel — a move designed to avoid being fired by Trump on January 20th.
Trump’s lawyers have announced they are appealing both the 11th District’s ruling and the original ruling that allowed for the release of the report in the first place — appeals that could well wind up in front of the Supreme Court.
Got all that? Politico summed up the situation well: “In short, the fate of Smith’s report — and whether some of it will be released publicly in the coming days — remains a muddle.”
And that muddle works in Trump’s favor because the clock is very much ticking.
Trump is employing his tested (and largely successful) legal strategy of delay. Garland has already made clear that he will release the January 6 report if he is legally able to do so. (Smith’s report on the classified documents allegedly retained by Trump will not be released to the public in the near term even if Garland is allowed to do so. He has said he wants that to be released at a later date — although is hoping members of Congress are allowed to see it.)
To be clear: Even if Smith’s report does come out between now and January 20 at 11:59 am, Trump will a) still be sworn in as president and b) face no legal penalties for his actions.
But, Smith’s report would almost certainly shed considerable light on what happened that day at the U.S. Capitol — and what role, if any, Trump had in it.
Which, for history’s sake, seems important.
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