WASHINGTON (AP) — A report by former special counsel Jack Smith on his investigation into President Donald Trump's hoarding of classified documents belongs in the “dustbin of history" and should remain sealed, the Justice Department said in a sharply worded court filing Friday.
“The illicit product of an unlawful investigation and prosecution belongs in the dustbin of history. The United States will leave it there,” prosecutors wrote.
The department's position echoes that of Trump, whose lawyers this week asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to permanently block the release of the Smith report. It adds to the likelihood that a detailed report on a criminal investigation once seen as posing significant legal peril to Trump might continue to remain hidden from public view.
Smith and his team produced a two-volume report on investigations into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election after he lost to Biden and his retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left the White House following his first term.
Both investigations produced indictments that were abandoned by Smith's team after Trump's November 2024 election win in light of longstanding Justice Department legal opinions that say sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.
The volume on the election investigation was released in the final days of the Biden administration. But Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge in Florida who issued multiple favorable rulings for Trump and his two co-defendants in the classified documents case, last year granted a defense request to at least temporarily halt the release of the report dealing with that case. That edict meant that Smith could not discuss the substance of that investigation when he testified Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee.
The injunction is set to lift on February 24.
But Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, where the case was filed, said in a three-page court filing that the report should remain sealed. He and another prosecutor in that office, Manolo Reboso, wrote that Smith's investigation was “unlawful from its inception.”
They also wrote that Attorney General Pam Bondi had determined that the report was “an internal deliberative communication that is privileged and confidential and should not be released” outside the Justice Department.
“Smith not only weaponized the Department of Justice against a leading presidential candidate in pursuit of an anti-democratic end, but he did so without legal authority and while targeting constitutionally protected activity,” the prosecutors wrote.
Smith, during his testimony Thursday, defended his investigations of Trump and insisted that he had acted without regard to politics and had no second thoughts about the criminal charges he brought.
“No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that he be held to account. So that is what I did,” Smith said of Trump.
Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith testifies before the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador declared Cuba’s ambassador, Basilio Antonio Gutiérrez, and his diplomatic staff “persona non grata” on Wednesday and gave them 48 hours to leave the South American country.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the measure was adopted within the framework of international diplomatic law, but didn't say why they were forcing the diplomats to leave. The Vienna Convention allows countries to declare diplomatic personnel a persona non grata without explanation.
Shortly after the announcement, a man could be seen on the roof of the Cuban Embassy in Quito burning a bag of papers in a oven. The burning was witnessed by the Associated Press and later posted in a video on social media by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, who remarked bluntly: “A paper barbecue.”
Ecuadorian officials did not provide more details on the incident or identify the man.
Cuba's government strongly rejected the move in a statement on Wednesday night, calling it an “unfriendly and unprecedented act that significantly damages the historic relations of friendship and cooperation between both countries."
“This action also demonstrates the contempt of the current government of Ecuador for the diplomatic practices and courtesies observed by the international community,” wrote Cuba's Foreign Ministry.
The decision follows an executive order signed Tuesday by Noboa in which he canceled Ecuadorian ambassador to Cuba José María Borja's diplomatic duties, also without explanation.
The same day, the United States and Ecuador announced they have begun joint military operations against organized crime groups in the Andean nation. Noboa has sought to position himself as a tough-on-crime leader in the wake of a surge of armed group violence in recent years.
The measure comes amid mounting pressure by U.S. President Donald Trump on Cuba, which intensified after a U.S. military operation deposed former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Since, Trump has placed restrictions of oil sales to Cuba and said the government was “ready to fall.” Ecuador is one of the Trump administration’s allies and collaborators in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime in the region.
Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said Wednesday in a post on X that it seemed like "no coincidence” that Ecuador expelled Cuba's diplomatic staff at the same time the U.S. was asserting pressure on Cuba and other governments in the region, and ahead of a meeting of mostly right-wing Latin American leaders in Miami next week, which Noboa is slated to attend.
Ecuador and Cuba have maintained bilateral relations since 1960, which have ebbed and flowed with shifts in Ecuadorian politics.
The Wednesday decision has an “ideological component,” said Andrea Endara, coordinator of Political Science and International Relations at Casa Grande University. She said that Noboa “has aligned himself with the interests of the United States.”
The effective expulsion of the Cuban officials follows a number of diplomatic dramas between Ecuador and other Latin American nations in recent years. In 2024, Ecuadorian officials raided the Mexican embassy to arrest the former vice president taking shelter there. Experts said this was a blatant violation of international law, causing Mexico to cut off relations.
More recently, a trade war has broken out between Ecuador and neighboring Colombia, which Noboa’s government accused of not doing enough to crack down on crime on their shared border.
Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
FILE - This is a general view of El Malecon in Havana, Cuba, seen Nov. 1971. (AP Photo/Beverley Reed, File)
