Tuesday, November 26, 2024 -U.S. Special counsel, Jack Smith is dropping the federal election subversion and the mishandling of classified documents cases against US President-elect Donald Trump, seeking the cases’ dismissal in court filings on Monday, November 25.
Trump
had previously said he would fire Smith once he retook the office, ending
previous norms around special counsel investigations. Smith’s criminal pursuit
of Trump over the last two years for trying to subvert the 2020 presidential
election and his mishandling of classified documents represented a unique
chapter in American history: Never before has a former occupant of the White
House faced federal criminal charges.
Though
the election subversion case culminated this summer in a landmark Supreme Court
ruling that said Trump enjoyed some presidential immunity from criminal
prosecution, Trump’s strategy of delay in the case ensured that a trial never
got underway before the November election.
In the
election case Trump faced in Washington, DC, Smith charged the former president
over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, a plot that culminated in
the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
“The
(Justice) Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this
case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,” Smith wrote of the
election subversion case in a six-page filing with US District Court Judge
Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC.
“This
outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the
defendant.”
“The
Government’s position on the merits of the defendant’s prosecution has not
changed,” Smith said in the filing.
In the
documents case brought in Florida, Trump was indicted for allegedly taking
classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office
and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials.
Trump
has pleaded not guilty to all charges in both cases.
Trump
spokesperson Steven Cheung in a statement called the move “a major victory for
the rule of law.”
“The American People
and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our
justice system and we look forward to uniting our country,” Cheung added.
Smith, in a filing with a federal appeals
court, said that prosecutors were keeping their case on mishandling classified
documents alive against two of Trump’s employees.
The case is before the 11th US Circuit Court
of Appeals, which is reviewing Judge Aileen Cannon’s order dismissing all
charges.
The co-defendants are Walt Nauta and Carlos
de Oliveira, who work for Trump and are accused of helping the former president
obstruct a federal investigation into sensitive government documents taken from
his first administration. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Smith said he was seeking to drop the charges
against the president-elect “without prejudice,” which would keep the door open
for charges to be brought again in the future, calling the presidential
immunity Trump will have as “temporary.”
Smith said he consulted with Justice
Department lawyers on the question and that they also weighed the possibility
of pausing the case until Trump no longer had the immunity of the presidency
protecting him.
Ultimately, however, the department’s Office
of Legal Counsel concluded that the bar on prosecuting sitting presidents is
“categorial,” including for indictments handed up before a defendant enters
office.
“Accordingly, the Department’s position is that the Constitution
requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated. And
although the Constitution requires dismissal in this context, consistent with
the temporary nature of the immunity afforded a sitting President, it does not
require dismissal with prejudice,” Smith wrote
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