A US judge has temporarily blocked special counsel Jack Smith from releasing a report on his investigation into President-elect Donald Trump over mishandling of classified documents.

On Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon, the federal judge who presided over the now-dismissed case against Trump, ordered the U.S. Justice Department not to release the report until a federal appeals court rules on a request from his two former co-defendants.

Co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira remain under appeal. They have argued that publishing the report could affect their right to a fair hearing.

A criminal indictment in the classified documents case was announced in June 2023, when prosecutors accused Trump and Nauta, his adviser, of defying a federal subpoena and turning over records containing defense intelligence and other sensitive materials after they left public office.

Prosecutors also accused the two of trying to hide the documents and cover up the evidence.

De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was charged in August 2023 in an updated indictment implicating him in an alleged conspiracy to delete surveillance footage.

Trump is the first US president ever against whom criminal proceedings have been initiated. He has since been convicted in a separate criminal case of falsifying business documents in New York.

The secret documents case has now encountered several hurdles since it was first announced.

Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the case last July, arguing in her decision that the position of “special counsel” had not been authorized by Congress.

This was contrary to years of legal precedent: special counsels were generally approved to provide independent legal advice in cases where there might otherwise be a conflict of interest.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, a member of President Joe Biden’s administration, appointed Smith to that role in 2022 to investigate Trump.

In addition to the secret documents case, Smith has also investigated Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. This led to a separate criminal indictment in August 2023.

Both federal cases were dropped last November after Trump won a second term. Smith also announced his intention to resign before Trump’s inauguration, after which the Republican leader would take control of the Justice Department.

“The Department of Justice has long held that the Constitution of the United States prohibits the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President,” Smith wrote in a legal opinion at the time.

Smith’s report is expected to contain two volumes: one on the secret documents case and one on the election interference case. But a spokesman for Smith’s office declined Monday to comment on Judge Cannon’s order unless it is made public.

Under Justice Department rules, Smith must submit a final report to Garland, who previously committed to releasing all special counsel reports during his term.

Trump praised Judge Cannon’s decision during a question-and-answer session at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.

He has long denounced the prosecution as a politically motivated attempt to prevent him from returning to power. On Monday, he repeatedly called Smith a “disgrace.”

“He probably wanted to do a report right before I took office, so he’s going to like a 500-page report, and it’s going to be a fake report, just like the investigation was a fake investigation,” Trump told reporters on the news.

“So if they are not allowed to release the report, so be it. Because he was kicked off the case in disgrace. Why should he be allowed to write a fake report?”