AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to block Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith’s “Final Report” on Trump, Monday, claiming it contained “false and discredited accusations.”
Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro wrote to Garland to “demand that Smith terminate all efforts toward the preparation and release of this report,” accusing the special counsel of seeking “to disseminate an extrajudicial ‘Final Report’ to perpetuate his false and discredited accusations” in the wake of both of Smith’s cases against Trump being dropped.
“It is clear, as has been the case with so many of the other actions of Smith and his staff, that the Draft Report merely continues Smith’s politically-motivated attack, and that his continued preparation of the Report and efforts to release it would be both imprudent and unlawful,” wrote the attorneys in their letter:
First, Smith lacks authority under our Constitution to issue a report because he was not validly appointed, and the plain terms of the permanent indefinite appropriation that he has pillaged for more than$20 million clearly do not apply to his politically-motivated work. The preparation and release of a report, therefore, would extend and perpetuate Smith’s violations of the Appointments Clause and the Appropriations Clause.
Second, the Draft Report violates fundamental norms regarding the presumption of innocence, including with respect to third parties unnecessarily impugned by Smith’s false claims. Releasing the report to the public without significant redactions (that would render its release meaningless) would violate prohibitions on extrajudicial statements by prosecutors and Rule 6(e).
Blanche and Lauro also claimed that the release of the report “would violate the Presidential Transition Act and the Presidential immunity doctrine,” which prevents officers from “interfering with the ongoing transition process.”
“Accordingly, because Smith has proposed an unlawful course of action, you must countermand his plan and remove him promptly,” they concluded. “If Smith is not removed, then the handling of his report should be deferred to President Trump’s incoming attorney general, consistent with the expressed will of the People.”
In November, Trump nominated Blanche to be deputy attorney general.
