DOJ ‘Winding Down’ Criminal Cases Against Donald Trump as He Prepares Return to White House
The Justice Department is already making moves to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump, following a longstanding department policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, according to multiple media reports citing sources they did not name.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith will be gone before Trump is inaugurated for his second term in January, NBC and Fox News both reported Wednesday, the day after a sweeping election victory for Republicans. In the run-up to Election Day, Smith had been vigorously pursuing his Jan. 6-related interference and documents cases – but ran into legal setbacks and delays that prevented further progress.
DOJ officials now have no room to maneuver, and see no point in carrying on, the sources said. Trump’s legal team is reportedly pursuing its own next steps for how to resolve the case in his favor, looking to wipe the slate clean of state-brought cases as well.
The fate of Trump’s New York-based business-fraud felony convictions, with a sentencing date set for Nov. 26, is less certain; the president-elect’s legal team is said to be seeking an indefinite postponement or outright dismissal. The Georgia election-interference case, meanwhile, remains tied up in appeals over ethical issues plaguing Attorney General Fani Willis.
“The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again,” Trump spokesman Steven Chung said. “It is now abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, so we can, as President Trump said in his historic speech last night, unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation.”
The DOJ is following precedent set by a 2000 memo from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which upheld a Watergate-era decision that prosecuting a sitting president would interfere with the office of president, saying an impeachment is “the only appropriate way to deal with a President while in office.”
Under the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, Smith was hired by Joe Biden’s DOJ and charged Trump with conspiring to illegally overturn the 2020 election, defraud the United States, and obstruct an official proceeding. In the documents case, he was charged with improperly retaining national defense information, obstruction and lying to investigators.
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