Lawyers for Donald Trump have directed the Department of Justice (DoJ) to not release a special counsel’s report listing out its investigations into the US president-elect.
Jack Smith had led two probes into Trump, one on alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and another on his observable mishandling of classified documents.
While both cases were shelved, Mr Smith’s detailed report was due to be released very soon.
However, in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Trump’s lawyers urged him to stop the “weaponisation of the justice system” and hand the report to them.
The correspondence claimed Smith did not have the legal authority to submit the report because he was unconstitutionally picked to do the job and was politically motivated. Smith is however, yet to publicly respond to this at this time.
Trump’s legal team had during the weekend, received a draft copy of the report.
The two investigations had led to criminal indictments against Trump but both have long since been dismissed, partly due to a longstanding DoJ policy to not prosecute a sitting president.
The former president and no president-elect had pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.
Federal regulations on the US have decreed that any special counsel probe must conclude with a report to the justice department and Garland had previously said he would release all such reports.
During his time away from the White House, Trump was ‘assaulted’ with an array of legal cases, which were successfully delayed and foiled by his ever competent team of lawyers and allies.
