'Did not read this Circuit's rules': Trump complains that groups trying to make Jack Smith's Mar-a-Lago report public 'cast aspersions against' judges who didn't 'deliver'

On the same day that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals again resoundingly rejected Donald Trump's defunct RICO lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the president's legal team separately defended the appellate judges against perceived attacks on their motives.

In an opposition brief on Tuesday, Trump attorney Kendra Wharton tore into the Knight First Amendment Institute and American Oversight for persistent yet "meritless" attempts to fast-track appeals.

Months after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case, finding through "careful study" in July 2024 that special prosecutor Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed, the Trump-appointed jurist issued an injunction barring the release of Volume II.

As Law&Crime has reported since, that injunction effectively muzzled Smith from addressing the Mar-a-Lago investigation when he testified behind closed doors in late 2025 and then before Congress in January.

In February, and after ignoring American Oversight and the Knight Institute's attempts to intervene in the closed criminal case for nearly a year, Cannon permanently blocked the DOJ from releasing Volume II.

Prior to that ruling, the groups filed emergency appeals, fearing that Cannon would order Volume II's destruction.

That did not happen, but the rush to prevent it has led to a messy appellate posture as to her denial of the groups' interventions. Trump says the groups "should not be rewarded" with speedy relief for creating that mess.

In March, the would-be intervenors asked the 11th Circuit to consolidate the two appeals "because they arise from the same underlying proceeding" and because they "present the same core legal questions."

More Law&Crime coverage: Trump DOJ 'abandoning core tenets of American justice' to embarrass Joe Biden by letting 'deleted' ghostwriter audiotapes spill out, court filing says

"[I]f anything," the groups submitted, the "public's interest in prompt access to Volume II has […] intensified since January[.]"

"The grounds the Court credited in granting expedition in January 2026 apply with equal or greater force now," the motion argued. "The need for expedition does not diminish merely because a procedural prerequisite—consolidation—remains to be resolved. To the contrary: it is the absence of a ruling on consolidation that is now standing in the way of the expedited disposition this Court already ordered."

Trump's legal team, much like it has defended Cannon's honor in the past, slammed "wrong[]" attacks accusing the 11th Circuit of "undue delay."

"Lacking any credible argument for expedition at this juncture in the proceedings, Appellants falsely assert that this Court has 'already determined' that good cause exists, and they wrongly accuse this Court of undue delay in declining to expedite the appeals, all while refusing to acknowledge that their own sequencing decisions and repeated missteps resulted in the very posture of which they now complain," the filing said. "At this point, Appellants' modus operandi is clear. They will continue to deflect, cause unnecessary motion practice, and cast aspersions against any judicial officer who does not deliver their desired outcome."

Adding that the groups "apparently either did not read this Circuit's rules or assumed they are immune from their consequences," Trump praised the 11th Circuit for enforcing "rules concerning postponement of briefing" in the face of a "strategic effort to reframe their intervention appeals and accelerate the Court's calendar in a way that worked in their favor."

"Nothing about the earlier scheduling order now requires the Court to ignore Appellants' procedural missteps," the filing concluded.

In response, Knight Institute senior counsel Scott Wilkens told Law&Crime that there's "no valid reason for further delay."

"The public interest in the Special Counsel's report is extraordinary, and the public right of access to the report requires timely access," Wilkens said.