A high-stakes hearing set for Friday at Judge Aileen Cannon’s courtroom will determine the fate of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his classified documents prosecution — though it appears possible that President-elect Trump has already won on the issue. 

A group of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee is even going so far as to ask Attorney General Garland to dismiss the criminal charges against Trump’s two co-defendants, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, to hasten the report’s release.

The Democrats — including Congressmen Jamie Raskin and Dan Goldman — write that “as Attorney General, it is incumbent upon you to take all necessary steps to ensure the report is released before the end of your tenure, including, if necessary, by simply dismissing the remaining criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s co-conspirators, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.”

Even if Judge Cannon rules that the report can be published, it could be that Americans will never read it. That’s because Mr. Garland’s plan is to supply it to only congressional leadership for “in camera” review, meaning secret review. If Judge Cannon does not decide the disposition of the report before Trump takes the constitutional oath on January 20, the new attorney general could bury it — for four years, at least.   

Mr. Smith earlier this month submitted his dossier on the documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago to Mr. Garland, to whom the law gives discretion over whether and how to disclose the report. The volume that concerns the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election has already been released. 

The fate of the volume concerning classified documents has been more convoluted because the government’s prosecution of Trump’s valet, Mr. Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, Mr. De Oliveira, is ongoing. Judge Cannon dismissed the charges, but an appeal of that ruling is before the 11th United States Appeals Circuit. 

Trump is no longer a party to the case, because Mr. Smith moved for dismissal after the outcome of November’s presidential election. The special counsel, in the volume already released, insists that “but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency … the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.” The Department of Justice has determined that there is a “categorical” prohibition on prosecuting a sitting president. 

Judge Cannon has been an obstacle to the government from the case’s inception. Her ruling that Mr. Garland unlawfully appointed Mr. Smith — who was never confirmed by the Senate — meant that the charges against all three defendants were dismissed even before Trump won a second term. Judge Cannon last week foiled the government again when she issued a temporary injunction blocking the entirety of Mr. Smith’s report. 

The jurist ultimately lifted that interdiction with respect to the January 6 portion of the dossier, but has kept it in place for the part of the document that concerns the case over which she presided. Messrs. De Oliveira and Nauta contend that the release of the document, in whatever form, is prejudicial to their due process rights. That could be addressed if the charges are dismissed, per the request of Messrs. Goldman and Raskin. 

The thinking of those Democrats — both of whom were involved in the two impeachment cases against Trump — is likely that the prosecutions of Messrs. De Oliveira and Nauta are on life support. Once Trump takes the oath of office he could pardon both men, or instruct the justice department to drop the prosecutions. The current United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Markeny Lapointe, is set to resign on Friday.

The Department of Justice’s position is that Judge Cannon “lacks the authority to intrude on the Attorney General’s prerogative to manage the Justice Department’s interactions with Congress.” The DOJ adds that Messrs. De Oliveira and Nauta “cannot establish that the Department of Justice’s intention to release the volume …. will cause Defendants any harm, much less irreparable harm.”

Regardless of what happens in Judge Cannon’s courtroom on Friday, though, Trump is free and clear of federal charges — and will be sworn in as the 47th president on Monday.