Judge Cannon Gives Trump Roadmap to Keep Jack Smith Report Hidden

On Monday, following news that Judge Aileen Cannon denied American Oversight’s motion to intervene to lift the court’s January 21, 2025, gag order blocking the release of Volume II of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on President Trump’s handling of classified documents, we released the following statement:

“This court continues its troubling pattern of elevating secrecy over common sense to protect the president — shutting the public out of information of enormous public importance. After nearly a year of delay, the court acted only when it was forced to and after Donald Trump personally stepped in. Even then, the decision was structured to give him exactly what he wanted: time, leverage, and a clear roadmap for keeping this report buried,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “This was not careful deliberation. It was delay, deference, and a refusal to allow transparency in one of the most consequential investigations of our time. This report belongs to the American people, who have every right to know what was uncovered during the investigation. We refuse to let the truth be buried. We will fight — through every lawful means — to ensure the report is brought to light.”

In her order, Judge Cannon denied motions by American Oversight and the press-freedom watchdog Knight First Amendment Institute to intervene, rejecting arguments that transparency and public access interests warrant judicial review in a matter of significant public importance.

Judge Cannon temporarily lifted restrictions on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ability to disclose Smith’s report but declined to order its immediate release, instead granting President Trump a 60-day window to challenge disclosure and keeping the report under seal while any appeal proceeds.

The decision comes just days after Smith spent more than eight hours testifying behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee, where he revealed that his investigation produced “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Trump unlawfully attempted to overturn the 2020 election and had uncovered “powerful evidence” that the president willfully retained highly classified documents after leaving office. It also follows reports this week that former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan took the extraordinary step of urging court leadership in the Southern District of Florida — where Judge Cannon presides — to prevent a separate investigation, one widely viewed as part of the president’s retributive agenda, from being assigned to her, citing a pattern of rulings favoring Trump and warning that judicial processes risk being manipulated to serve political ends.

In November, Judge Cannon was compelled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s to respond to American Oversight’s mandamus petition asking the court to vacate the gag order. The court found that Cannon’s failure to rule on our motion — which had been fully briefed since March — constituted an “undue delay,” and gave her 60 days to fully resolve the issues before the Court takes further action.

American Oversight filed its Sep. 2025 mandamus petition after repeated efforts to obtain judicial action to lift Cannon’s order preventing the public from accessing the report, which would ordinarily be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with applicable exemptions. Although all appeals in the criminal case were dismissed nearly a year ago, the injunction remained in effect until today, blocking the release of information.

On Feb. 10, 2025, we filed a FOIA lawsuit and motion for preliminary injunction against the DOJ, demanding the release of the report after the agency’s failure to respond to the FOIA request. We sought emergency relief because the report was expected to contain information about whether Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel misled the public in claiming Trump declassified documents before leaving office. At the time of the motion, Patel’s confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate was imminent. In its opposition to our motion, the DOJ relied on Judge Cannon’s gag order, and the DC district court denied the motion and dismissed the suit because of the gag order.

Also in February, Judge Cannon rejected our request to expedite its motion to lift her gag order, but delayed ruling on the organization’s accompanying motion to intervene until now.