Ahead of Jack Smith Deposition, Judiciary Democrats Back Legal Challenge to Trump DOJ’s Unjustified Withholding of Full Special Counsel Report

Washington, D.C. (December 12, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, is leading Judiciary Democrats in a renewed push for the public release of Volume II of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report, ahead of Special Counsel Smith’s deposition before the Committee on December 17. The report details how Donald Trump knowingly retained hundreds of presidential and highly classified records at his Mar-a-Lago club and then deliberately defied subpoenas, obstructed law enforcement, hid evidence, and lied about his continuing retention of these records. Judiciary Democrats are filing an amicus brief in United States v. Trump before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding she stop hiding the report and make it immediately available to the Committee in advance of the deposition.

“This Administration has repeatedly boasted that President Trump is ‘the most transparent and accessible president in American history.’ Your campaign to bury Mr. Smith’s report makes a joke out of that claim. You are permitting prosecutors to be hauled before Congress to defend their work while denying Congress and the American public the written record that would explain it,” wrote Judiciary Democrats in the letter to Attorney General Bondi.

After rejecting Special Counsel Smith’s offer to testify before the American people in a public hearing about his investigations into Trump’s unlawful conduct, Judiciary Republicans subpoenaed Smith to sit for a closed-door deposition on December 17. The deposition comes as the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to block the release of Volume II of the Special Counsel report with no justification.

Every previous Special Counsel report has been released in full. There is no basis for treating Volume II differently.

Judiciary Democrats have repeatedly written to DOJ demanding the full release of Special Counsel’s report—but the DOJ has so far refused to even acknowledge these requests.

The only basis the DOJ has ever articulated for withholding Volume II—and the main justification for Judge Aileen Cannon’s January 2025 order enjoining its release—was protecting the fairness of the then-pending criminal proceedings against Trump’s two co-defendants. The Trump DOJ dismissed the proceedings against those co-defendants in February, ten months ago, and has since had zero legal basis for withholding the report.

At the same time, the Trump DOJ has authorized Special Counsel Smith to testify about the investigation that the report memorializes—while still refusing to produce the report itself. The report is an essential piece of the Special Counsel’s testimony, and Members of Congress cannot meaningfully examine a witness about an investigation whose conclusions they have not been permitted to review.

“We demand that you produce Volume II to the House Judiciary Committee immediately. The American people have a right to know what Special Counsel Smith found. If you contend that any legal impediment prevents such production—a claim you have failed to assert in any of your communications with this Committee—we demand that you file an emergency petition with the district court seeking authorization for disclosure to Congress in advance of the deposition. The report has been completed for a year. The criminal proceedings that justified delay ended ten months ago,” concluded the Members.

All Judiciary Democrats joined today’s amicus brief in United States v. Trump, challenging the Trump DOJ’s continued withholding of the Volume II report.

Click here to read the letter.

Click here to read the amicus brief in United States v. Trump.