WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a bid to block the public release of  on President-elect Donald Trump'sÂ
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a emergency challenge aimed at keeping under wraps the report expected to detail unflattering revelations about Trump’s failed effort to cling to power in the election he lost to President Joe Biden.
A separate volume of the same special counsel report — related to Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — will not become public while the case against two co-defendants of the president-elect remains pending, the Justice Department said.
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Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media Aug. 1, 2023, about an indictment of former President Donald Trump at a Department of Justice office in Washington.
Even with the appeals court ruling, though, the election interference report will not immediately be released, and there's no guarantee it will be as more legal wrangling is expected. A lower court ruling from Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida  from releasing the report remains in place for three days.
The defendants may now ask Cannon to rule on the merits of their request to block the report, which she did not do earlier when she granted their emergency motion. They could also conceivably ask the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to intervene.
A Trump spokesperson called Smith's report an “unconstitutional, one-sided, falsehood-ridden screed."
“It is time for Joe Biden and Merrick Garland to do the right thing and put a final stop to the political weaponization of our Justice system,†spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement after the ruling.
The two-volume report is expected to detail findings and explain charging decisions in Smith’s two investigations, though the prospect for significant new information is unclear given the extensive details already disclosed in separate indictments against Trump.
Smith’s team  after Trump’s presidential election victory, citing Justice Department policy that prohibits the federal prosecutions of sitting presidents.
In July, Cannon — who concluded that Smith’s appointment was illegal — dismissed the case accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Smith’s appeal of the dismissal of charges against Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were charged alongside Trump with obstructing the investigation, is still active, and their lawyers argued this week that the release of a report while proceedings were pending would be prejudicial and unfair.
The Justice Department's decision to withhold the classified documents section of the report for now lessens the likelihood it will ever been seen by the public, given that the Trump Justice Department almost certainly will not release it even after the case against Nauta and De Oliveira is resolved.
The election interference case was . The court ruled then for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, all but ending prospects Trump could be tried before the November election.
Justice Department regulations call for special counsels appointed by the attorney general to submit a confidential report at the conclusion of their investigations. It’s then up to the attorney general to decide what to make public.
Attorney General Merrick Garland made public in their entirety the reports produced by other special counsels who operated under his watch, including  on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information and  on the FBI’s investigation of Russian election interference.
States where the most Jan. 6 rioters have been arrested
States where the most Jan. 6 rioters have been arrested
In his bid for reelection, former President Donald Trump is positioning the Jan. 6, 2021,
attack on the Capitol Building as a central component of his campaign.
The attack, which led to the deaths of five people and caused injury to an estimated 140 police officers, was the deadliest attack on the Capitol since 1998. While Trump denied involvement directly following the attack, he has since embraced it as an act of patriotism, going so far as to describe the pre-riot rally as a "love fest" in an interview with Fox News. Leading up to the election, he has promised to pardon those who have been "unfairly" arrested.
Since March 2024, Trump has publicly referred to the convicted rioters as hostages, thus altering the terminology to strengthen his campaign. This revisionist approach has fueled his supporters, many of whom now view those incarcerated as martyrs for the cause—some Trump followers have declared him a martyr as well after his surviving an assassination attempt on July 15.
In a statement, Judge Royce C. Lamberth warned not to let Jan. 6 become "a precedent for further violence against political opponents or governmental institutions."
Right-wing terrorism in the U.S. has found tragic, deadly, and racist expression in crimes. Take the 2022 shooting in which a white nationalist murdered 10 Black people inside Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York. Or when, in 2023, three Black people died at the hands of a far-right 21-year-old inside a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida. A report by the Anti-Defamation League linked white supremacists to in 2022.
As a singular event, the Jan. 6 riot was the culmination of years of political division and mounting activity and violence by right-wing extremists.
As far back as 2009, the Department of Homeland Security noted a , which was catalyzed in the 2000s by an economic downturn and the election of America's first Black president.
To paint a picture of how widespread such activity has been across the U.S., investigated where the most Jan. 6 rioters have been arrested using data from the as of July 30, 2024. States are ranked by the number of rioters arrested in that state; ties are broken by rioters per million residents, though some ties remain.
Of the 1,297 arrests documented on the Department of Justice's database, 104 were not included in the ranking because they did not include arrest locations. Wyoming and North Dakota were also excluded because the states reported no arrests.
An estimated 2,000 to 2,500 people entered the Capitol Building during the Jan. 6 riot. As of January 2024, the in association with the riot, either for actions occurring that day or for having a connection to those who performed them. Of those, roughly 820 have pleaded guilty, and about 884 have been adjudicated and sentenced.
The DOJ is still actively pursuing cases; full details on all of the current are publicly available from a variety of sources. In July 2024, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to narrow the obstruction charge for Joseph Fischer in Fischer v. United States. This decision affects the prosecution of 350 convicted defendants with the same charge in the Jan. 6 riots.
On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump is "entitled to some immunity" from the four felony counts to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 election and returned the case to the trial court. His trial is now delayed until after the 2024 election. In her dissent, which she read aloud from the bench, Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor wrote: "When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority's reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution ... With fear for our democracy, I dissent."
Meanwhile, arrests related to the insurrection continue: William George Knight, a man with distinctive blonde dreadlocks and tattoos on his face, was arrested on May 26, 2024. He is accused of "ramming a giant metal-framed 'TRUMP' sign into a line of police officers" and then shoving an officer. Videos show him as one of the first to break through the barriers at the Capitol.
Read on to see where the most rioters have been arrested so far.
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#49. Mississippi
- Number of rioters: 1
- Rioters per million people: 0.3
#48. Nebraska
- Number of rioters: 1
- Rioters per million people: 0.5
#46. Vermont
- Number of rioters: 1
- Rioters per million people: 1.5
#44. Nevada
- Number of rioters: 4
- Rioters per million people: 1.3
#43. New Mexico
- Number of rioters: 4
- Rioters per million people: 1.9
#42. Rhode Island
- Number of rioters: 4
- Rioters per million people: 3.6
#41. Alaska
- Number of rioters: 4
- Rioters per million people: 5.5
#40. Montana
- Number of rioters: 5
- Rioters per million people: 4.4
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#39. Arkansas
- Number of rioters: 6
- Rioters per million people: 2.0
#37. New Hampshire (tie)
- Number of rioters: 6
- Rioters per million people: 4.3
#37. Maine (tie)
- Number of rioters: 6
- Rioters per million people: 4.3
#36. Delaware
- Number of rioters: 6
- Rioters per million people: 5.8
#34. Connecticut
- Number of rioters: 7
- Rioters per million people: 1.9
#33. Idaho
- Number of rioters: 7
- Rioters per million people: 3.6
#32. Wisconsin
- Number of rioters: 9
- Rioters per million people: 1.5
#31. Utah
- Number of rioters: 9
- Rioters per million people: 2.6
#30. Kansas
- Number of rioters: 9
- Rioters per million people: 3.1
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#29. Iowa
- Number of rioters: 10
- Rioters per million people: 3.1
#28. Oregon
- Number of rioters: 11
- Rioters per million people: 2.6
#27. Oklahoma
- Number of rioters: 11
- Rioters per million people: 2.7
#26. West Virginia
- Number of rioters: 11
- Rioters per million people: 6.2
#25. Minnesota
- Number of rioters: 13
- Rioters per million people: 2.3
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#24. Arizona
- Number of rioters: 15
- Rioters per million people: 2.0
#23. Massachusetts
- Number of rioters: 15
- Rioters per million people: 2.1
#21. Alabama
- Number of rioters: 18
- Rioters per million people: 3.5
#20. South Carolina
- Number of rioters: 19
- Rioters per million people: 3.5
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#19. Colorado
- Number of rioters: 20
- Rioters per million people: 3.4
#17. Michigan
- Number of rioters: 26
- Rioters per million people: 2.6
#16. Kentucky
- Number of rioters: 26
- Rioters per million people: 5.7
#15. North Carolina
- Number of rioters: 29
- Rioters per million people: 2.7
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#14. Indiana
- Number of rioters: 29
- Rioters per million people: 4.2
#13. Georgia
- Number of rioters: 31
- Rioters per million people: 2.8
#12. Tennessee
- Number of rioters: 31
- Rioters per million people: 4.3.
#11. New Jersey
- Number of rioters: 33
- Rioters per million people: 3.6
#10. Missouri
- Number of rioters: 33
- Rioters per million people: 5.3
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#9. Illinois
- Number of rioters: 43
- Rioters per million people: 3.4
#8. Washington, D.C.
- Number of rioters: 44
- Rioters per million people: 64.8
#6. Ohio
- Number of rioters: 69
- Rioters per million people: 5.9
#5. California
- Number of rioters: 72
- Rioters per million people: 1.8
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#4. New York
- Number of rioters: 79
- Rioters per million people: 4.0
#3. Pennsylvania
- Number of rioters: 93
- Rioters per million people: 7.2
#2. Texas
- Number of rioters: 101
- Rioters per million people: 3.3
#35. Louisiana
- Number of rioters: 7
- Rioters per million people: 1.5
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#47. Hawaii
- Number of rioters: 1
- Rioters per million people: 0.7
#45. South Dakota
- Number of rioters: 2
- Rioters per million people: 2.2
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#22. Maryland
- Number of rioters: 17
- Rioters per million people: 2.8
#18. Washington
- Number of rioters: 23
- Rioters per million people: 2.9
#7. Virginia
- Number of rioters: 63
- Rioters per million people: 7.2
#1. Florida
- Number of rioters: 107
- Rioters per million people: 4.7
Additional writing and story editing by Shannon Luders-Manuel. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn.
