The former vice president and the president-elect shook hands and briefly chatted at Jimmy Carter's state funeral on Jan. 9

At issue now is the fate of a two-volume report that Smith and his team had prepared about their twin investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of his 2020 election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Smith has spent the last two months winding down the two federal criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump and had indicated he would resign before inauguration.