NEW: Judge Aileen Cannon permanently forbids the Department of Justice from releasing Volume II of Jack Smith's report

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23. NY Times: "unlikely to be the last word" and "rejected" destruction of all copies of Vol. II

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https://archive.is/20260223161729/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/us/politics/trump-jack-smith-classified-documents-aileen-cannon.html

Judge Bars Release of Special Counsel Report on Trump’s Mishandling of Documents
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida, slammed the former special counsel, Jack Smith, for drafting the report even after she had dismissed the case.

.... The order on Monday made that preliminary ruling permanent — though it is unlikely to be the last word on the matter. Two watchdog groups, American Oversight and the Knight First Amendment Institute, have been trying for months to force the release of Mr. Smith’s report, filing a series of requests to the federal appeals court that sits over Judge Cannon. ....

While the judge granted Mr. Trump’s request, she rejected the effort to have all remaining copies of Volume II destroyed. In an unusual, but perhaps unsurprising, move, the Justice Department weighed in on the issue last month, agreeing with Mr. Trump and telling Judge Cannon that the report should remain sealed. ....

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