Democrats push DOJ to reveal hidden half of Jack Smith report as GOP prepares tense deposition

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the committee, said Smith should have the chance to have his complete work speak for itself ahead of what's likely to be a contentious closed-door meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday.

"They are afraid of the embarrassment of what is contained within the report," Raskin told Fox News Digital on Monday evening.

According to that report, Volume II deals with whether Trump unlawfully retained classified information in the wake of his first term. 

Raskin believes Republicans will likely use the closed-door hearing as a basis for prosecution against Smith. 

"Republicans don't want to go along with it because they want to get him into a backroom and then cherry-pick statements, distort them, leak them, spin them," Raskin added.

When asked whether there was a reason why the DOJ shouldn't publish Smith's full work, Republicans pointed to the order that had originally blocked Volume II, as well as ongoing adjudication over its release.

"Attorney General Bondi is simply following the order of the federal judge who sealed Volume II of Jack Smith's report. Judge Cannon will decide by January 2026 whether Volume II should be released," Russell Dye, a spokesperson for the committee, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"Of course, ranking member Raskin knows all of this but despises President Trump so much that he would rather mislead the American people than get the facts straight," Dye said.

In response to claims of the investigation's findings, Raskin said that's a difficult determination to make.

"Well, it's hard to, it's hard to say why we need to know the things that we don't know," Raskin said.