By Katelyn Polantz, CNN

(CNN) — Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress he plans to make special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the cases against Donald Trump available to committee leaders and, ultimately, the public, once courts allow, marking the formal end of Smith’s office.

Garland noted he believes even the part of the report about the classified documents case should be public someday.

Garland, in a letter sent Wednesday to House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairs and ranking members, outlines how he wants to confidentially provide to them Smith’s volume on the classified documents case and how he wants to release to Congress and to the public the volume on Trump’s 2020 election interference criminal charges.

Garland specifies he would do so “when permitted to do so by the court.”

Both cases have been dismissed before any findings of guilt or innocence, and the defendants are currently challenging the release of all parts of Smith’s report, signaling a major shift in the approach to transparency from the Justice Department that is expected in Trump’s administration.

Garland also says in the letter that he never disagreed with any of Smith’s proposed actions as “inappropriate or unwarranted.” Those types of splits between the attorney general and a special counsel are to be disclosed to Congress, but “there were no such instances during Special Counsel Smith’s investigation,” Garland wrote.

He said once the criminal cases against Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira conclude — they are still in appeals — Garland also believes the volume Smith wrote on the classified documents case should be released publicly. The DOJ has agreed at this time to keep that volume confidential, given only privately to the committee leaders if they request it, so as to not infringe on the two Trump employees’ rights. Nauta and De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty.

“I have determined that once those criminal proceedings have concluded, releasing Volume Two of the report to you and to the public would also be in the public interest, consistent with law and Department policy,” the attorney general wrote.

Of course, Garland will no longer be attorney general in 11 days, and the proceedings for Nauta and De Oliveira are likely to end once Trump takes office.

The letter is part of the expected wrap-up action at the closure of a special counsel’s office, as outlined in Justice Department regulations.

But Garland’s outline differs from others given the ongoing court action over Trump’s report, which he and his co-defendants in the classified documents case are trying to keep secret in its entirety.

A ruling on Garland’s disclosure plan from a federal appeals court is expected as early as Thursday.

The-CNN-Wire
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