CNN
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Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress that he intends to release special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the cases against Donald Trump to committee chairs and ultimately to the public as soon as the courts allow it, which would mark the formal end of Smith’s office.

Garland noted that he believes even the classified documents portion of the report should one day be public.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, Garland explains how he would confidentially provide them with Smith’s tape on the classified documents case and how he would share the tape on Trump’s case Congress and the public would like to make criminal charges for election interference in 2020 available.

Garland states that he would do so “if the court allows it.”

Both cases were dismissed before any determinations of guilt or innocence were made, and the defendants are currently requesting the release of all parts of Smith’s report, signaling a significant shift in the Justice Department’s approach to transparency expected by the Trump administration.

Garland also says in the letter that he never objected to any of Smith’s proposed actions as “inappropriate or unjustified.” Such divisions between the attorney general and a special counsel must be disclosed to Congress, but “no such incidents occurred during Special Counsel Smith’s investigation,” Garland wrote.

He said that once the criminal cases against Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira are completed – they are still under appeal – Garland also believes the volume Smith wrote about the secret documents case should be released publicly . The DOJ has agreed at this time to keep this tape confidential and to make it privately available to committee heads only upon request so as not to violate the rights of the two Trump staffers. Nauta and De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty.

“I have concluded that releasing the second part of the report to you and the public following the conclusion of this criminal case is also in the public interest and consistent with the law and Department policy,” the attorney general wrote.

Of course, Garland will no longer be attorney general in 11 days, and the cases against Nauta and De Oliveira will likely end once Trump takes office.

The letter is part of the expected final action in closing a special counsel office, as outlined in Justice Department regulations.

But Garland’s draft differs from others given the ongoing trial over Trump’s report, which he and his co-defendants in the classified documents case are trying to keep secret in its entirety.

A federal appeals court decision on Garland’s disclosure plan is expected as early as Thursday.