Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida, ordered the Justice Department on Tuesday to temporarily withhold from the American public special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his investigations into the president-elect, despite questions about her authority to do so.

Cannon’s order came in response to a Monday request by President-elect Donald Trump’s longtime valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, who are facing charges in a classified documents case brought by Smith. Trump was also charged in the classified documents probe, but Smith dropped the case against the Republican leader after he won the 2024 presidential election.

In their filing on Monday, Nauta and De Oliveira’s attorneys called on Cannon to bar the release of Smith’s final report, even though the classified documents case is currently before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta — not Cannon’s court. The Justice Department is appealing Cannon’s decision last summer to dismiss the classified documents case as the agency pursues charges against Nauta and De Oliveira.

Cannon wrote in her order Tuesday that Attorney General Merrick Garland, Smith, and other Justice Department employees are enjoined from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting” Smith’s final report or “any drafts of such report” outside the DOJ. The judge said her order would remain in effect........

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