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CNN’s Elie Honig Says Prior Ruling In Docs Case Could Doom Jack Smith’s Plan To Release Report On Trump

CNN's Elie Honig [Screenshot/CNN]

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling that appointing a special counsel is unconstitutional could doom the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s planned report on President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump and his co-defendants in Florida requested that Cannon block Smith’s release of a report that addresses his two previous federal cases against Trump, which alleged that the president-elect unlawfully stored classified information in his private home and engaged in conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election results. Trump’s legal team could potentially use Cannon’s argument about the constitutionality of a special counsel to argue against the release of information on the elections case, Honig said.

“I think [Cannon’s ruling] will be the argument Trump will make to Judge Cannon, but remember, she only has the classified documents case. There’s a separate case in Washington, D.C., on the January 6 indictment, so that argument is not going to apply,” Honig said. “But I think [Trump’s] team will argue the entire institution of a special counsel is unconstitutional as Judge Cannon found, and therefore you cannot release this report. I think that’ll take us into unknown territory because while there have been several challenges lodged against special counsels over the years in various cases, not just this one, they’ve all failed until Judge Cannon. So that could be the hook that he’s trying to use here.”

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Honig argued that Trump’s attempt to block the release of the report is an “unprecedented step” given that special counsel’s reports have first gone to Congress before being released to the public. He said that Attorney General Merrick Garland has publicly released special counsel’s reports, including special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s classified documents case.

“Merrick Garland has so far in his term has immediately released special counsel’s reports to the public,” Honig said. “He did that with the Robert Hur report about Joe Biden’s classified documents, he did that with Durham’s report. So, Donald Trump is taking a really unprecedented step here of trying to block the release of that report. Every time thus far in our recent history where these reports have been written, it has in fact gone over to Congress and then out to the American public.”

Cannon argued in July that the appointment of a special counsel violated the appointments clause of the Constitution, ultimately dismissing the case. Smith appealed the ruling shortly after the decision.

Smith dropped the classified documents and election interference cases against Trump following his electoral victory in November to uphold the Department of Justice’s precedent of not prosecuting a sitting president.

Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who are still defendants in the classified documents case, will likely receive pardons from Trump once he takes office, Honig said.