Overview
- The Justice Department notified U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday that copies of sealed Volume II of special counsel Jack Smith’s report were inadvertently included on flash drives produced in Rule 16 discovery for the Carmen Lineberger prosecution.
- Defense lawyers say they discovered three embedded documents on June 9, immediately stopped review, deleted downloaded files and cooperated in returning the drives to the government.
- Judge Cannon previously sealed Volume II after dismissing the underlying prosecution and ordered the report not be released outside the department.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche previously represented President Trump in the same classified-documents matter, and Senate Democrats have raised conflict-of-interest and oversight concerns in response to the disclosure.
- The report remains under seal and not public, and the episode has prompted questions about DOJ evidence-handling practices that could lead to further judicial or congressional scrutiny.