# Jack Smith Report Volume II The **suppressed second volume** of Special Counsel [[Jack Smith]]'s final report — the volume covering the [[Mar-a-Lago Documents Case]] — and the ongoing legal saga over its release. Volume I (the January 6 / election-subversion case) was released publicly in **January 2025**; Volume II has been **locked inside the [[Department of Justice]]** ever since by order of Judge [[Aileen Cannon]], the same judge who dismissed the underlying prosecution. The suppression arc produced one of the cleanest [[Elite Impunity]] contrasts of the T2 era: in **May 2026** the DOJ criminally charged former federal prosecutor [[Carmen Lineberger]] for emailing herself copies of Volume II disguised as **cake recipes** — and in **July 2026** the DOJ disclosed that it had itself **inadvertently sent three copies of Volume II to Lineberger's defense attorneys** in discovery, likely violating the very same Cannon order underlying the charges against her. ## Why Volume II matters Volume II contains Smith's full evidentiary account of the classified-documents case — the case [[Aileen Cannon]] dismissed on July 15, 2024 on the unprecedented ground that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional, and which the DOJ formally abandoned after the 2024 election (see [[Mar-a-Lago Documents Case]]). Because the dismissal produced **no trial and no resolved factual record**, Volume II is the closest thing to a definitive public accounting of the evidence that will ever exist. Smith's released Volume I conclusion — that the prosecution would likely have succeeded on the merits — makes the suppressed volume the most sought-after document of the Trump legal arc. ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | July 15, 2024 | Cannon dismisses the documents case; DOJ drops charges entirely in November 2024 after Trump's election win | | January 2025 | Volume I (election case) released publicly by AG [[Merrick Garland]]; Volume II withheld while co-defendant proceedings remained live | | **January 21, 2025** | **Cannon bars the DOJ** "its officers, agents, officials, and employees from releasing, sharing, or transmitting" Volume II "outside the Department of Justice, or otherwise releasing, distributing, conveying, or sharing with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions" in it or drafts of it | | January 22, 2026 | Smith testifies before the House Judiciary Committee: "Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6" | | February 2026 | Cannon **affirms** her order barring release after briefing from interested parties — stopping short of ordering the report destroyed | | **May 19, 2026** | DOJ under Deputy AG [[Todd Blanche]] indicts [[Carmen Lineberger]], former S.D. Fla. federal prosecutor, for emailing herself copies of Volume II renamed as cake-recipe files | | May 29, 2026 | Government files unopposed motion for protective order limiting defense dissemination of discovery materials | | June 3, 2026 | DOJ produces discovery to Lineberger's defense on flash drives | | June 9, 2026 | Defense counsel flags **three documents embedded in the discovery** — the government confirms they are copies of Volume II; defense ceases review, deletes downloaded materials, returns the flash drives same day | | June 30, 2026 | Scheduled 11th Circuit oral argument on third-party challenges to Cannon's suppression order canceled, "to be rescheduled at a later date" | | **July 2, 2026** | Joint notice of inadvertent discovery disclosure filed with Cannon on the United States v. Trump docket — the DOJ acknowledging its own likely violation of the order | ## The double standard The Lineberger indictment quotes Cannon's January 21, 2025 order at length and stresses that it "has remained in full force and effect since issued." The July 2, 2026 joint notice concedes the government transmitted three copies of the same report outside authorized channels — to lawyers outside the DOJ — through ordinary discovery sloppiness. The government praised defense counsel's "professionalism and candor," recovered the drives, and faced no charges; Lineberger faces felony exposure for conduct that, per her indictment, involved **no alleged dissemination to anyone but herself** and **no alleged motive**. > [!warning] Disputed > [[Allison Gill]]'s framing that the DOJ "emailed" three copies compresses the mechanism: per the joint notice, the copies were embedded within electronic messages produced on flash drives. The legal substance — Volume II left the DOJ in likely violation of Cannon's order — is undisputed by the parties. The episode also feeds the standing question of the report's fate: with the 11th Circuit hearing on third-party release challenges canceled and unrescheduled, Cannon's order remains the only thing standing between Volume II and the public — enforced, so far, against exactly one person. ## See Also - [[Mar-a-Lago Documents Case]] — the underlying prosecution and the Cannon dismissal - [[Elite Impunity]] — mechanism taxonomy this episode extends - [[Criminalizing Whistleblowers]] — the Lineberger prosecution as insider-deterrence signal - [[Trump Indictments Timeline]]