The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) told a federal court on Jan. 23 that it should bar the release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the classified documents investigation into President Donald Trump.

Judge Aileen Cannon, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, previously issued an injunction blocking the report’s release, but her order expires next month.

The DOJ said in a court filing that the report should not be made public because releasing it would prejudice the three defendants in the case, including Trump, and because Smith’s tenure as special counsel was “marked by illegality and impropriety.”

The new filing came in the now-dismissed criminal prosecution of Trump, his former valet Waltine Nauta, and former Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, that began during the Biden administration in connection with classified documents allegedly discovered at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

Cannon dismissed a superseding indictment against Trump, Nauta, and de Oliveira in July 2024, after finding that the appointment of Smith as prosecutor was unconstitutional.

Cannon held that Smith’s appointment by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland violated the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution. The judge determined that the appointment was invalid because Smith was not nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate and because no federal statute specifically authorized the appointment.

The DOJ, then under the control of the Biden administration, appealed the dismissal.

Later, after Trump won the presidential election in November 2024, Smith dropped his prosecution against Trump, who had been charged with obstructing justice and unlawfully retaining classified documents after leaving the White House in January 2021.

Smith resigned as special counsel on Jan. 10, 2025, 10 days before Trump was inaugurated as the nation’s 47th president.

In February 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit granted the DOJ’s request to dismiss the charges against Nauta and de Oliveira. The two men had been charged with concealing classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The Jan. 23 filing was offered in support of Trump’s Jan. 20 motion to permanently block the release of the second volume of Smith’s report, which deals with the criminal investigation related to alleged mishandling and concealment of classified documents by Trump and his then-codefendants. The court’s temporary injunction blocking release runs out on Feb. 24.

That motion states that the release of the second volume would constitute “an irreversible violation of [the] Court’s constitutional rulings in the underlying criminal action and of bedrock principles of the separation of powers.”

“Release would also lead to the public dissemination of sensitive grand jury materials, attorney-client privileged information, and other information derived from protected discovery materials, raising significant statutory, due process, and privacy concerns for President Trump and his former co-defendants,” the motion reads.

The Jan. 23 filing by Miami-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Manolo Reboso states that the DOJ agrees with Trump, Nauta, and de Oliveira that the second volume should not be released outside the DOJ.

“Smith not only weaponized the Department of Justice against a leading presidential candidate in pursuit of an antidemocratic end, but he did so without legal authority and while targeting constitutionally protected activity,” the brief reads.

“Put simply, Smith’s tenure was marked by illegality and impropriety, and under no circumstance should his work product be given the full weight and authority of this Department.”

The filing also said that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi takes the position that the three codefendants would be subject to “extraordinary unfairness and prejudice” with the release of information over which Trump has asserted attorney–client privilege.

“The illicit product of an unlawful investigation and prosecution belongs in the dustbin of history,” the brief states.

The first volume of Smith’s report was released in January 2025, days before Biden left office. The report’s subtitle said its focus was on “efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Meanwhile, Smith told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 22 that he stood by his decision to prosecute Trump in the two cases—one about the retention of classified documents, and the other about Trump’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election.

“No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that [the president] be held to account,” Smith said. “So that is what I did.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Smith through his attorneys at Covington and Burling in Washington but received no response.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.