Democrats ramp up calls to release Jack Smith’s special counsel report on Trump classified documents case

Nineteen House Judiciary Committee Democrats are filing an amicus brief demanding release of Jack Smith's sealed report detailing Trump's classified documents investigation.

House Democrats plan to urge a federal judge in Florida to unseal former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report, escalating their push to obtain the document ahead of Smith’s deposition with Congress next week.

The 19 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said, according to an amicus brief reviewed by Fox News Digital on Friday, that Judge Aileen Cannon’s longstanding order blocking the release of the report, which details Smith’s investigation and prosecution of President Donald Trump related to classified documents, had no basis and unconstitutionally hindered Congress from performing its duties.

"The continued suppression of [Volume II of Smith's report] now serves only to obstruct the constitutional processes by which the political branches oversee one another and report to the American people," the brief reads.

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The Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., also sent a demand letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the latest of several letters they have sent to her on the matter, saying she had no justification for withholding the report.

They said the decision to keep it from the public was "baffling" and that Cannon's order did not bar the DOJ from handing the document over to House lawmakers. They also said Bondi could easily ask Cannon to unseal it, but she has not done so.

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"This Administration has repeatedly boasted that President Trump is ‘the most transparent and accessible president in American history.’ Your campaign to bury Mr. Smith’s report makes a joke out of that claim," the Democrats wrote. "You are permitting prosecutors to be hauled before Congress to defend their work while denying Congress and the American public the written record that would explain it."

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

House Judiciary Committee Republicans subpoenaed Smith to testify next week behind closed doors as part of their investigation into his special counsel work, despite Smith asking to testify at a public hearing.

Democrats have been pushing as part of that probe for the second portion of Smith's final special counsel report, which likely contains Smith's deeply detailed account of how he went about investigating and charging Trump for allegedly retaining classified documents. The first volume was released last year under the Biden administration.

House Judiciary Republicans noted in a statement to Fox News Digital that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ordered Cannon to decide on whether to unseal the report by next month.

"Judge Cannon will decide by January 2026 whether Volume II should be released. Jack Smith will be questioned about his entire investigation next week before the Judiciary Committee," a committee spokesman said. "Of course, Ranking Member Raskin knows all of this, but despises President Trump so much that he would rather mislead the American people than get the facts straight."

Cannon, a Trump appointee, blocked the release of the report in January, saying it would interfere with the classified documents case against Trump's two co-defendants. Smith dropped Trump's charges alleging he mishandled national defense information after Trump won the election, citing a policy discouraging the DOJ from prosecuting sitting presidents.

The DOJ this year then dropped the charges against the co-defendants, but the U.S. attorney in southern Florida maintained in a recent court filing that the release of the special counsel report detailing the classified documents case would still cause "extraordinary prejudice" against the two former defendants.

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