Special counsel Jack Smith has asked a judge to dismiss the federal election interference case against Donald Trump as he is set to become the next US president.
The withdrawal in the case marked the end of the years-long legal battle between Trump and the special counsel, Jack Smith, and reflected the extraordinary ability of Trump to sidestep an indictment that would have sunk the presidential bid of anyone else.
In new documents filed on Monday, Smith told the judge the case should be closed because of the Justice Department’s policy that bans the prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud the US and other charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
“As a result of the election held on November 5, 2024, the defendant, Donald J. Trump, will be inaugurated as President on January 20, 2025,” Smith wrote in the new filing. “It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President.”
“This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant,” Smith added in the six-page filing.
The request to dismiss Trump’s election subversion case marks an end to a lengthy legal saga after Smith had to refile charges against the president based on a Supreme Court ruling that found Trump had partial immunity to prosecution.
Trump’s return to the White House has left several of the criminal cases against him in limbo.
His sentencing for his criminal conviction in the state of New York has been indefinitely delayed, while another federal case related to his handling of classified documents is also likely to be dismissed as he takes office.
Smith’s election subversion case against Trump had also faced challenges. The prosecutor was forced to revise the charges against the former president after the Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump was immune from prosecution over “official acts” that took place while he was in the White House.
Smith had argued in a revised indictment that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were related to his campaign and therefore not official acts.
When Trump won the 2024 election this month, Smith began to take steps to wind down both the election interference case and the classified documents case, in which Trump was accused of storing sensitive files in his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
Trump has pledged to get rid of Smith as soon as he takes office.
“It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds,” he told a conservative radio host earlier this month.
Trump’s election victory was always going to spell the end of the criminal cases against him due to justice department policy that prohibits prosecutors from taking criminal action against a sitting president. But the preemptive withdrawals showed how Trump used politics to beat the legal system.
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