Washington/Florida. This is no less than a huge diplomatic victory for US President Donald Trump. The threat looming over Trump’s head in the matter of intelligence and secret files found in ‘Mar-a-Lago’ estate has now been averted forever. And this historic relief has been given to them by a woman judge from Florida. This judge has tied the hands of the US Justice Department and has kept that report of the Special Council away from the public eye forever.

Florida-based US District Court Judge Eileen Cannon is the same judge who was appointed by Donald Trump during his first term. On Monday, he issued a historic order permanently barring the Justice Department from releasing Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report, which accused Trump of illegally possessing intelligence documents and obstruction of justice after leaving the presidency.

Why did the judge put a stay on the report forever?

1. Judge Cannon clearly stated in his 15-page decision that if this report was made public, it would be an injustice to President Trump and his two former aides. He gave three main arguments behind this.
2. The judge said that it is not normal that such huge investigative material of a case in which there was never a trial and no one was proven guilty in front of the jury, should be made public.
3. Canon itself had ruled in 2024 that the appointment of Jack Smith as ‘Special Counsel’ was illegal. The judge reprimanded Smith and said that his preparation of this report when the court had banned his work was a direct violation of the court’s order.
4. The judge called Smith’s efforts a ‘shameless ploy’ and said the court cannot encourage such things.

What was in this secret report?

Before leaving office, Special Counsel Jack Smith submitted two parts of his final report to former Attorney General Merrick Garland. Its first part, which mentioned Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, was released even before Trump became president again. The second report was related to classified (intelligence) documents kept at Mar-a-Lago. Trump and his lawyers fought an entire legal battle to stop it, and ultimately, with Judge Cannon’s decision, this volume is now buried forever.

There is also a ‘twist’ in the story
Even though Judge Eileen Cannon stopped the report from being published, she rejected a major demand of both Trump associates. Colleagues had demanded that this report be completely destroyed, but Judge Canon flatly refused to do so. That means the report will remain safe, but no one will be able to read it, unless a higher court overturns it in the future.