Donald Trump is asking the Department of Justice of the outgoing Joe Biden administration not to publish the report of special prosecutor Jack Smith on his investigation of the two federal criminal proceedings against him before his return to power.
The special prosecutor recommended and obtained at the end of November a halt to federal proceedings against Donald Trump for illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and for withholding classified documents after his departure from the White House.
After consultations, the Department of Justice concluded that its policy since the Watergate scandal in 1973, consisting of not prosecuting a sitting president, “applies to this unprecedented situation,” he explained.
However, he plans to finalize this week a confidential report for Justice Minister Merrick Garland on his investigation of these two cases, Jack Smith confirmed Tuesday in court documents.
“The Minister of Justice will decide whether part of the report must be made public,” he specifies, indicating that such a publication would not take place until January 10 at the earliest.
But Donald Trump’s lawyers, in an email to Mr. Garland on Monday, demanded that he immediately end Jack Smith’s mission and block the publication of his “illegal and bad faith” report.
Citing in particular the need for a peaceful transition and the preservation of the presumption of innocence, they indicate that they had access to a preliminary version of the final report between January 3 and 6.
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