The Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), told Attorney General Merrick Garland in a letter that ending the case against the co-defendants was worth seeing the report.

“As Attorney General, it is incumbent upon you to take all necessary steps to ensure the report is released before the end of your tenure, including, if necessary, by simply dismissing the remaining criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s co-conspirators,” the lawmakers wrote.

Special counsel Jack Smith compiled a two-volume report at the conclusion of his prosecutions against Trump, and Garland released volume one, which pertained to Trump’s 2020 election case, this week. However, Judge Aileen Cannon blocked the release of volume two, which concerns Trump’s handling of classified documents.

Trump and his co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, asked Cannon to keep the report under wraps ahead of Trump’s inauguration, arguing that its release would prejudice the court against Nauta and De Oliveira while they still face charges.

Prosecutors have agreed with Trump’s team that making the report public is inappropriate while the classified documents case remains open, but they have asked Cannon to allow them to show the special counsel report to the top Republicans and Democrats on the Senate and House Judiciary committees. Trump’s team objected to this, and Cannon has set a hearing on the matter for Friday.

Committee Democrats said when Trump is sworn into office, he will “permanently bury” the report.

“To the extent that such a decision to dismiss these cases might encourage these defendants to keep enabling the corruption of their superiors, those concerns are outweighed by the many indications that Mr. Trump will simply end the prosecutions against his coconspirators upon taking office anyway and then instruct his DOJ to permanently bury this report,” the lawmakers wrote.

Trump’s DOJ will be able to end court proceedings against Nauta and De Oliveira. The report, though, could be subject to public records laws when the case ends, a point former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade highlighted on X.

“As the Jack Smith report gets tied up in court with stall tactics, it would seem prudent for some investigative reporter to file a FOIA request so that it can be produced if and when the cases are killed after Jan 20,” McQuade wrote. “Pending cases are excepted from FOIA. Closed investigations are not.”

A DOJ spokesman declined to comment on the Democrats’ request.