Donald Trump’s lawyers are asking the Justice Department not to release the special counsel’s report on the US president-elect’s investigation.

Jack Smith is leading two investigations into Trump, one into alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and the other into his apparent mishandling of classified documents.

Both cases have been stayed but Mr Smith’s detailed report will be released in the coming days.

But in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Trump’s lawyers urged him to end the “weaponization of the justice system” and turn the report over to them.

The letter said Mr. Smith had no legal authority to submit the report because he was unconstitutionally selected to do the job and was politically motivated. Mr. Smith has yet to respond publicly.

Trump’s legal team received a draft copy of the report over the weekend.

Both investigations led to criminal indictments against Trump, but both were later dismissed, in part because of the Justice Department’s longstanding policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents.

The former president has pleaded not guilty and denies all wrongdoing.

Federal regulations require that any special counsel investigation must submit a report to the Justice Department, and Garland has previously said he would release any such reports.

While out of the White House, Trump faced a series of legal cases that his lawyers and allies successfully delayed and blocked.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration faces accusations from Trump’s opponents that it has been too slow to file lawsuits against Republicans, while Trump’s supporters believe the prosecutions are politically motivated.

One of Mr. Smith’s two cases involves Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the case ended up in legal limbo when the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s official conduct while in office was partially immune from criminal prosecution.

Mr. Smith later refiled the lawsuit but dropped it after Trump won the 2024 election.

He also led a case against Trump over alleged mishandling of classified documents Trump also denied the accusations after leaving the White House in his first term as president.

The case faced its own hurdles when a Trump-appointed judge dismissed the charges, arguing that Mr. Smith was improperly appointed to lead the case. Smith fought back again – this time appealing – but later gave up, too.

Justice Department guidance prohibits criminal prosecution of a sitting president. Mr. Smith clarified that this legal protection also extended to prosecutions of private citizens who were subsequently elected president.

The Trump campaign celebrated the news, calling it a “major victory for the rule of law.”

Smith is reportedly expected to resign before Trump returns to the White House on January 20 and threatens to fire him.

Despite Trump’s latest legal victory, Trump still faces sentencing Friday after being convicted last year in New York of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments to porn stars.

With less than two weeks to go until Trump is re-inaugurated as U.S. president, the judge rejected a request for a delay, even though he had previously made clear he would not consider jail time for Trump.