Special counsel Jack Smith (left) and Judge Aileen Cannon (right).
While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, former special counsel Jack Smith revealed that while he's seen part one of his official report of his investigation, he's never seen part two.
The video of a closed-door interview with Smith, released at the end of the day on New Year's Eve, revealed that, ahead of the hearing, the former prosecutor demanded both parts of the report be referred to in his answers. In the end, however, Smith never opened it.
On her Thursday "Daily Beans" podcast, legal analyst Allison Gill pointed out that Smith is so "by the book" that he didn't look at the document despite his request, because Florida Judge Aileen Cannon's order barred it.
Law&Crime noted that the moment came near the start of the deposition, House Judiciary Democrats remarked that Cannon's order blocked the release of Volume II.
It "amounts to gagging Mr. Smith today and preventing him from telling this committee about his investigation into President's Trump's crimes," Democrats objected, according to the transcript.
"And, specifically, these crimes include stealing and lying about classified documents he kept in the ballrooms and bathrooms of his Mar-a-Lago clubhouse. And there is no reason at all to continue to keep Volume II under seal — besides, of course, the fact that Mr. Trump doesn't like what it says," the transcript went on.
Cannon's order, in part, bars Smith from "disclosing any nonpublic information that may be contained in Volume II." Had Smith commented on it and revealed anything about it, he would have been in violation of Cannon's order.
Smith refused to answer any questions about what could be in the second part of the report.
"Well, there is an order of Judge Cannon, an injunction regarding Volume Two. I want to make very clear that I do not want to do anything to violate that injunction or that order," Smith said.
He went on to say that the Justice Department gave him a computer that contained files from his probe and he believed Volume II was included in the files.
"And so, given that I have not seen — looked at Volume Two since I submitted it to the Attorney General almost a year ago, I do not have an exact recollection of what is in there and not. And so, unless something is in a public filing or — and people can point me to a public filing — I think the category that was mentioned in the letter that we got this morning of publicly — I can't remember the terminology, but properly publicly released information, I do not want to — I want to be clear I do not want to violate that order, and I don't want to do anything that can even be remotely construed as violating that order," Smith said, according to the transcript.
The lawyer on the Democratic side paused him, "Wait. So — I'm sorry. But DOJ did not let you review Volume Two of your report?"
"It may well have been there, but I chose not to review it, because I didn't want any implication whatsoever that I was somehow violating the order by looking at it, not being a member of the Department now," Smith explained.