Special Counsel Jack Smith is in discussions with senior leadership at the Justice Department to conclude his prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The decision is based on a longstanding Department of Justice policy that a sitting president cannot face criminal prosecution while in office.
According to NBC News, the future of both the federal election subversion case in Washington, D.C., and the ongoing appeal of Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the classified documents case remains uncertain.
There are many unanswered questions about what will happen between now and when Trump is inaugurated in January. Officials are working with Smith to decide whether he will write up a report about his investigation or if they can just pause the investigations until after Trump’s second term in office.
Trump’s legal team is giving Smith “breathing room” in hopes he will end the prosecutions, The Hill reported. If he does not, Trump has vowed to fire him on his first day in office.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and Trump’s alleged unlawful possession of highly classified documents from his time in the White House. On June 8, 2023, Smith indicted Trump on charges of unlawfully retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges in a federal court in Florida.
On August 1, 2023, Trump was indicted on four felony counts related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump also pleaded not guilty in federal court to those charges. However, both cases were disrupted by the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this summer granting presidents partial immunity against prosecution.
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