A Step Closer to the Release of Volume II of Jack Smith's Final Report

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals tells Judge Cannon to fish or cut bait on the 8 month old motion to release Volume II.

On July 15, 2024, Judge Cannon dismissed the documents case on the grounds that Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed Special Counsel (which is not true, but that never got litigated because Jack Smith dropped his appeal after Trump won the election.)

One day after Trump was sworn in, Judge Cannon blocked the release of Volume II of Jack Smith’s final report because the case was still active against his co-conspirators Nauta and DeOliveira. But in February, Trump’s DOJ dropped those cases and said it had no intent of bringing the charges at a later date.

The Knight Institute - a Columbia University non-profit then filed a Freedom of Information Act request, which Trump’s DOJ promptly denied - citing Judge Cannon’s injunction. You would think that since there’s no further proceedings in this case, and given the massive public interest, the report could be released. But no.

On February 14th, the Knight Institute filed a motion to intervene in the criminal case on Judge Cannon’s docket - which she has ignored for the past 8 months.

About a month ago, The Knight Institute filed a writ of mandamus with the 11th Circuit, asking them to order Judge Cannon to rule on their petition. Today, the 11 Circuit Court of Appeals gave her 60 days to do so:

Before the Court are related petitions for writs of mandamus, which request relief in relation to Petitioners’ pending motions to intervene to seek vacatur of the district court’s January 21, 2025, order barring release of Volume II of the Special Counsel’s Final Report.

Petitioners filed their motions on February 14 and February 24, 2025, and filed notification on July 7 and July 10, 2025, informing the district court that their motions had been fully briefed for more than 90 days. To date, the district court has not ruled or conducted any other further proceedings on the pending motions.

Accordingly, Petitioners have established undue delay in resolution of their motions to intervene and the petitions for writs of mandamus are HELD IN ABEYANCE for a period of 60 days to allow the district court to fully resolve the motions.

It appears that gives Cannon 60 days to rule, after which the Circuit Court might take action. I imagine she’ll deny the motion, but not until day 60 (January 2nd). I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

You can read the 11th Circuit’s ruling here.

The three-judge panel is comprised of an Obama appointee, a Biden appointee, and a Trump appointee; Jill Pryor, Abudu, and Grant.

~AG