Overview

• American Oversight filed a mandamus petition asking the Eleventh Circuit to vacate Judge Aileen Cannon’s sealing and allow release of Volume II of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report.
• The Knight First Amendment Institute submitted a separate filing seeking to compel a ruling from Judge Cannon and to make the report public, calling the delay “manifestly unreasonable.”
• Judge Cannon dismissed the classified-documents case by ruling Jack Smith’s appointment unlawful, yet her order continues to keep the related report under seal.
• The Justice Department has cited Cannon’s order to deny FOIA requests and was previously blocked from providing the report to Congress; prosecutors later abandoned cases against Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
• Volume I of Smith’s report on the 2020 election case was released in January, and the advocacy groups argue the public interest similarly supports disclosure of the classified-documents volume.