Judge permanently blocks release of final report on Trump classified documents probe
U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions during a press briefing held at the White House February 20, 2026 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge who tossed then-special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against President Donald Trump has permanently barred the release of Smith’s final report on his probe.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in 2024 after deciding that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unlawful, then blocked the release of the Smith’s report on his investigation.
She ruled Monday that the report should be sealed for good, after Trump and his co-defendants in the case sought a court order barring the report’s release.
The public release of the report “would contravene the conclusions in the Court’s final Dismissal Order that Special Counsel Smith acted without lawful appointment or funding authority in this proceeding and that his actions taken in connection herewith are therefore invalid,” Cannon’s order said.
Cannon, a Trump appointee, also scolded Smith for preparing the report in the first place even though she had ruled his appointment was unlawful, calling it a “concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order.”
“Nevertheless, rather than seek a stay of the Order, or clarification, Special Counsel Smith and his team chose to circumvent it, for months, by taking the discovery generated in this case and compiling it in a final report for transmission to then-Attorney General Garland, to Congress, and then beyond,” Cannon wrote in her order.
“The Court need not countenance this brazen stratagem or effectively perpetuate the Special Counsel’s breach of this Court’s own order,” she wrote.
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back. Trump asserted that he had every right to possess the documents.
Smith, testifying publicly before the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee last month, said his investigation “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity” — and that partisan politics did not play a role in his decision to charge Trump.
FBI Director Kash Patel released a surveillance photo, Feb. 10, 2026 showing a potential subject in investigation of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie in Tucson, AZ. (@FBIDirectorKash/X)
(TUCSON, Ariz.) — FBI Director Kash Patel has released images and video of an “armed individual” in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
The images showed a masked man wearing gloves, a backpack and armed with a holstered handgun at the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home around the time investigators suspect she was abducted on Feb. 1.
“[L]aw enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance,” Patel said in his post.
Savannah Guthrie posted the images to her Instagram account, with the message, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”
Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday, Feb. 1, according to authorities. A Monday ransom deadline by persons claiming to be Guthrie’s abductors passed as the search for her continues.
Patel said the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s office worked with “private sector partners” in recent days to recover the video footage, which Patel said had been “lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors, including the removal of recording devices.”
“The video was recovered from residual data located in the backend systems,” Patel said. “Working with four partners – as of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump was briefed on the latest details in the case and was reviewing the video footage posted online by Patel.
“We’re just praying for the safety of Nancy Guthrie and that she will return home soon. And the President directed me to please encourage all Americans with any information to call the FBI, and we hope that this case will come to a positive resolution as soon as possible,” Leavitt said.
The latest development in the case came a day after Savannah Guthrie made an impassioned plea to the public to help solve her mother’s disappearance.
“We are at an hour of desperation, and we need your help,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video, speaking directly to the camera. It was the fourth video that Guthrie and her two siblings had released on social media since their mother vanished.
The exact time of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is unclear. Her doorbell camera disconnected at 1:47 a.m., on Feb. 1, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. At 2:12 a.m., the camera software detected a person, and at 2:28 a.m., Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker app disconnected from her phone, which was left behind at her house, Nanos said.
Over the weekend, the Guthrie family received a demand for a bitcoin ransom by a Monday deadline by a party claiming to be Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper. Savannah Guthrie and her siblings said they’d pay for their mother’s return.
“We received your message and we understand,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video over the weekend. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
After the ransom deadline passed Monday evening, the FBI released a statement, saying its agents continued to work around the clock on the case and that more were being sent to Arizona to assist in the investigation.
“The FBI is not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers, nor have we identified a suspect or person of interest in this case at this time,” the FBI said in its statement.
The bureau added that additional personnel from FBI field offices nationwide would continue to be deployed to the Tucson area to work on the case
“We are currently operating a 24-hour command post that includes crisis management experts, analytic support, and investigative teams. But we still need the public’s help,” the FBI’s statement said. “Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Kevin Faux, 24, is charged with murder for the death of the mother of his unborn baby, police said. (Houston Police)
(HOUSTON) — A man is at large after allegedly killing a woman who was 8 months pregnant with his baby, according to authorities.
Ashanti Allen, a 23-year-old Houston woman, was reported missing on April 10, Houston police said. Allen’s pregnancy was considered high-risk, according to the search and recovery organization Texas EquuSearch, whose members helped in the search.
On Thursday, police said a 23-year-old woman was found dead near a Houston community center. Police did not confirm the identity, but the family confirmed the victim was Allen, and Texas EquuSearch said the victim is believed to be Allen and her unborn child, Jackson.
The father of her baby, 24-year-old Kevin Faux, is charged with murder, police said, noting that Faux is not in custody.
Faux has a history of assault charges, according to court records obtained by Houston ABC station KTRK, including a September 2025 case when he allegedly assaulted Allen.
Allen’s cause of death is pending an autopsy, police said.
“My body’s been numb ever since I received the phone call,” Allen’s father, Edward Allen, told reporters. “We was hoping for the best. But now we’ve heard the worst.”
“Being pregnant, eight months, with my first grandson… I can’t even tell you how I feel,” Edward Allen said. “… I love my baby girl. She’s my only girl.”
He said the 23-year-old was excited to be a mother.
“Her life was going somewhere,” he said.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends as they navigate through this very difficult time,” Texas EquuSearch said in a statement. “Thank you for all who were involved and members who showed up each day, giving it their all.”
Houston police ask anyone with information about the case or information on Faux’s whereabouts to call the department at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
American religious & Civil Rights leader and politician Reverend Jesse Jackson points as he speaks from a lectern at the headquarters of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), Chicago, Illinois, July 17, 1981. (Photo by Antonio Dickey/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Barack Obama reflected on the late Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “legacy of hope” on Friday, telling thousands who gathered to celebrate the late civil rights leader’s life in Chicago that “we are living in a time when it can be hard to hope.”
“I’d always be grateful for that legacy of hope,” Obama said.
“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think you think were possible,” Obama said.
“Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all,” Obama added.
“Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength; we see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards every single day, we see that and it’s hard to hope,” Obama said.
Obama joined former Presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, in delivering remarks at the House of Hope on Friday afternoon in Chicago to honor the legacy of the pioneering civil rights leader, politician and minister, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Jill Biden also attended the service, along with governors of the states of Illinois, Maryland, California and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Throughout his speech Obama characterized Jackson as a “messenger” of God, who repeatedly said, “send me,” as he faced and fought injustices thorough his life – from the Jim Crow South, to the modern civil rights movement.
“But this man Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path, his voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change,” Obama said. “How fortunate we were that Jesse Jackson answered that call, what a great debt we owe to him. May God bless, Rev. Jackson. May he rest in eternal peace.”
Friday’s public “Celebration of Life” service will be followed by a private service on Saturday morning in Chicago. The services come after thousands paid their respects to Jackson as he lay in honor at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago last week. He was also honored in his birth state of South Carolina on Monday, where he laid in state at the state house in Columbia.
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people. He traveled the world fighting economic and gender inequity. Until his last days, he fought for better healthcare, education, and peace in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and beyond,” the Jackson family said in a statement on Wednesday. “I hope everyone who joins us to honor his legacy will also continue to champion these causes. That would be the best possible tribute and celebration they could offer.”
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. changed the United States — and the world,” the Jackson family said. “We are deeply honored to know there are people from every walk of life who want to join us to pay their respects.”
During his speech Obama reflected on Jackson’s historic campaigns for president in 1984 and 1988 and the rainbow coalition that he formed, forging the path forward for the Democratic Party. “He paved the road for so many others to follow,” Obama said. “And it was because of that path that he had laid, because of his courage, his audacity, that two decades later, a young black senator from Chicago, South Side would even be taken seriously as a candidate for the presidential nomination,” Obama added.
Harris also credited Jackson with forming the “rainbow coalition,” which became a defining force for the Democratic Party.
“Jackson reminded us that the many fights for freedom are interconnected,” she said.
“As he once said, when a barrier falls for one of the locked out, it opens the doors for all, and that is what he told me, and what he taught me, and how he inspired me,” she added.
Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton, who awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, said the late reverand made him a “better president.”
“We did not always agree, but I’ll tell you one thing, he made me a better president, because he was always pushing on things, and he knew that change came from the outside in, and sometimes from the inside out,” Clinton said. “so he knew how to keep pushing and nagging and wearing you up.”
Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.
During his remarks on Friday, Biden called for Jackson’s memory to inspire Americans. “Let us be what Jesse called us to be, a margin of hope. Sometimes it’s the margin [that can] change people’s lives, to change community lives; lift up this country and light the path to being the nation Jesse always believed we can be,” he said.
Several of Jackson’s children also honored their father’s legacy during the service, reflecting on his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs and how he dedicated his career to advancing economic justice and building political power for Black Americans.
Jackson’s son Yusef Jackson, who is also President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — the civil rights organization that Jackson founded in the 90s, said on Friday that his father’s legacy will continue in the work.
“This type of work does not pass by blood. It passes by spirit,” he said. “Thus it is in his name that we have committed ourselves, that the rainbow coalition will continue.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, Tierra Cunningham and Jeana Fermi contributed to this report.
