Judicial Watch announced Tuesday that a federal court has ordered the Department of Justice to disclose information on communications between Special Counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis regarding the prosecution of President Trump.
The Justice Department had continued to resist releasing any information even after its cases against Trump were shut down.
Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that since the prosecutions had been terminated, the DOJ’s justification for withholding the records no longer applied.
“Since DOJ filed its motion for summary judgment and supporting Declaration in March 2024, the Special Counsel’s criminal enforcement actions have been terminated…. The cases are ‘closed—not pending or contemplated—and therefore are not proceedings with which disclosure may interfere.’ … Thus, the agency’s sole justification for invoking the Glomar doctrine under Exemption 7(A) is no longer applicable,” Friedrich wrote.
As a result, the court denied the DOJ’s motion for summary judgment and granted Judicial Watch’s cross-motion, ordering the department to process the FOIA request and either release the records or prove they are exempt from disclosure.
Read the court order here.
