The Justice Department made a huge mistake this week; it was forced to confess in a court filing to Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida.
For years, the second volume of his full report on the investigations of President Donald Trump has been hidden from public view. One DOJ prosecutor is on trial for emailing the volume to her own private email. Now, the same DOJ that is trying a case against the woman for emailing it to herself has emailed it to her lawyers.
In a joint court filing announcing the data breach, the DOJ explained, "On June 3, 2026, the Government fulfilled its Rule 16 discovery obligations by furnishing electronic evidence and materials in its possession related to this criminal prosecution on flash drives to defense counsel. On June 9, 2026, defense counsel promptly notified the Government that, upon reviewing the electronic discovery that same day, defense counsel identified three documents embedded within the materials and contacted the Government to determine if those documents were intended to be produced in discovery."
They then reviewed the material and found the secret Jack Smith report.
"Upon review, the Government confirmed the documents in question were copies of the Volume II Report that were embedded within electronic messages required to be produced in discovery. Upon confirmation by the Government, defense counsel voluntarily ceased review of the discovery material, affirmed they had not examined the documents in question, deleted all discovery materials already downloaded to their server and cooperated with the Government’s efforts to recover the flash drives that same day," the filing continued.
The document goes on to say that the government "acknowledges the professionalism and candor of defense..."
Members of the House and Senate have been pressing for transparency about the report, since there has been no justice around the president's classified document theft.
“We all know that Trump retained classified documents after leaving office and tried to obstruct efforts to have them returned," said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in a statement. "The issue has always been ‘why?’ and Smith’s report would cast revealing light on the truth. Trump clearly violated the law whether he was or will in the future be prosecuted. The public deserves to know why this chapter in Trump’s serial violations of the federal law isn’t brought from the shadows and what and why powerful people want to keep it hidden. What’s in Volume II? An inquiring public needs to know.”
One detail in the book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan revealed that Trump has been cracking jokes about his document theft, teasing which documents he wants to steal at the end of his second term.
“This one would be good!” Trump said within the last year while holding up one document, a source said. They were quick to note it was a "joke."
The sources told reporters that Trump has at times spoken about making classified documents available for his presidential library, while at other times he has said he wants to "take them" to Mar-a-Lago for his own private use.
