The prosecutor leading the US government’s election interference and classified documents cases against Donald Trump has filed a motion to drop all charges against the president-elect. Special Counsel Jack Smith is expected to resign before Trump takes office in January.
Smith filed his motion in the election interference case on Monday, writing that while “the Government’s position on the merits of the defendant’s prosecution has not changed,” Justice Department policy prohibits the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
“That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind,” Smith continued in his submission to a federal court in Washington DC.
District Judge Tanya Chutkan will now have to grant Smith’s request in order for the case to be dismissed.
Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overthrow President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, arguing that Trump pressured election officials to invalidate the results and encouraged his supporters to riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to block the certification of Biden’s victory.
Trump faced four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
Then candidate Trump derided Smith as a “deranged lunatic,” and called the case a “pathetic attempt” by the Biden administration to jail a political opponent.
In a separate filing in Florida on Monday, Smith dropped his appeal against a district judge’s decision to throw out another case against Trump, this one concerning his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office in 2021. Smith charged Trump with 40 criminal counts after FBI agents recovered troves of government papers in a pre-dawn raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate last year, but the case was dismissed in July after District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Smith did not have the authority to prosecute the former president.
After abandoning his two cases against Trump, Smith is expected to resign before the president-elect takes office on January 20. Even if Smith were to cling on to his position, Trump has already vowed to fire the “crooked” prosecutor “within two seconds” of taking office.
Aside from Smith’s two federal cases, Trump was charged in New York with misreporting “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, and in Georgia with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. He was found guilty on all counts in New York in May, after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg successfully elevated one misdemeanor offense to 34 felonies, one for each installment paid to Daniels.
Trump was due to be sentenced in New York later this month. However, Judge Juan Merchan postponed the sentencing indefinitely on Friday, and agreed to hear a motion from Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case altogether.
The president-elect is still facing state-level election interference charges in Georgia, although three counts were dropped earlier this year. Oral arguments were canceled last week, and the case is widely expected to be dismissed before Trump’s inauguration.