Guardian "Judge permanently bars US justice department from releasing report on Trump's classified documents case"

[NewHendoLib]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/feb/23/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-tariffs-epstein-immigration-latest-news-updates

In a ruling on Monday, US federal judge Aileen Cannon permanently prohibited the justice department from releasing a report put together by former special counsel Jack Smith related to classified documents Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago.

Cannon, based in Florida, had previously dismissed the case against Trump in mid-2024 because, she concluded, Smith had not been properly appointed to a role as special counsel. Smith continued to prepare a final report based on what he and his team had collected in the investigation, Cannon wrote in her ruling Monday.

“To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, if not an outright violation of it,” she wrote of Smith continuing to create a report.

Releasing the report would be a “manifest injustice” for the defendants, since the case didn’t go to a jury, she wrote. “The former defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order.”