U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is facing renewed pressure to lift her permanent injunction barring the release of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report. The demand follows a high-stakes disclosure by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that revealed “damning” evidence regarding President Donald Trump’s handling of classified materials.
Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, formally called for the “gag order” to be rescinded in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi this week. Raskin argues that the DOJ’s recent production of “cherry-picked” investigative files to Congress—intended to discredit Smith—has effectively waived any justification for keeping the full report under seal.
The ‘Damning’ Revelations
The controversy centers on a January 13, 2023, memorandum authored by Smith’s team, which federal investigators produced to the committee this month. The memo details several high-level security breaches previously withheld from the public:
- Business Motive: Prosecutors alleged that the FBI found classified materials “commingled” with Trump’s post-presidency records. The memo explicitly states these documents were “pertinent to certain business interests,” suggesting a financial motive for their retention.
- Sensitive Access: One document held at Mar-a-Lago was reportedly so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government held the necessary clearance to view it.
- The ‘Map’ Incident: The memo alleges Trump showed a classified map to passengers aboard a June 2022 flight to his Bedminster golf club. According to the letter, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, then a campaign official, witnessed the event.
The DOJ and White House Response
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s DOJ has dismissed Raskin’s demands as a “cheap political stunt.” A department spokesperson maintained that the disclosure to Congress was in “full compliance with the law” and did not violate grand jury secrecy. The DOJ further characterized Smith’s files as containing “salacious and untrue claims” born of a “desperate” effort to prosecute a political opponent.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed this sentiment, stating that Smith has been “completely discredited” for what she termed “lawfare and witch hunts.”
Legal Limbo
Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee who dismissed the original documents case in 2024 by ruling Smith’s appointment was unlawful, granted a permanent block on the report’s release last month. She argued that disclosure would “contravene basic notions of fairness.”
However, Raskin contends that the DOJ cannot “violate Judge Cannon’s order… whenever it sees an opportunity to smear Jack Smith” while simultaneously using that same order to keep the public in the dark.
The timing is particularly sensitive as the U.S. remains engaged in a military conflict with Iran—the same nation reportedly featured in the classified map Trump allegedly displayed in 2022.
