Garland tells Congress he plans to make Jack Smith report on Trump cases available once courts allow

Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress he plans to make special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the cases against Donald Trump available to committee leaders and, ultimately, the public, once courts allow, marking the formal end of Smith’s office.

Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress he plans to make special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the cases against Donald Trump available to committee leaders and, ultimately, the public, once courts allow, marking the formal end of Smith’s office. Garland noted he believes even the part of the report about the classified documents case should be public someday. Garland, in a letter sent Wednesday to House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairs and ranking members, outlines how he wants to confidentially provide to them Smith’s volume on the classified documents case and how he wants to release to Congress and to the public the volume on Trump’s 2020 election interference criminal charges. Garland specifies he would do so “when permitted to do so by the court.” Both cases have been dismissed before any findings of guilt or innocence, and the defendants are currently challenging the release of all parts of Smith’s report, signaling a major shift in the approach to transparency from the Justice Department that is expected in Trump’s administration. Garland also says in the letter that he never disagreed with any of Smith’s proposed actions as “inappropriate or unwarranted.” Those types of splits between the attorney general and a special counsel are to be disclosed to Congress, but “there were no such instances during Special Counsel Smith’s investigation,” Garland wrote.