By Jack Smith will soon be looking for a new job. Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is evaluating how best to wind down its two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump before he assumes office. The Department has a long-standing policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted.
The reconsideration shows that Smith and his liberal allies in the agency did not anticipate Trump potentially winning and contrasts sharply with the DOJ’s pre-election stance. Over the past few months. Smith took substantial steps in his investigation into Trump’s alleged election interference, progressing without regard to the looming election. However, with Trump set to assume the presidency, DOJ officials acknowledge that neither the January 6 case nor the classified documents case is likely to reach trial anytime soon.
NBC News writes that the sources say DOJ officials have come to grips with the fact that no trial is possible anytime soon in either the Jan. 6 case or the classified documents matter — both of which are mired in legal issues that would likely prompt an appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, even if Trump had lost the election.
Now that Trump will become president again, DOJ officials see no room to pursue either criminal case against him — and no point in continuing to litigate them in the weeks before he takes office, the people said.
“Sensible, inevitable and unfortunate,” said former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg, an NBC News contributor.
The sources said it will be up to Smith to decide exactly how to unwind the charges and many questions remain unanswered. Could the prosecutions resume after Trump leaves office or would they be time-barred? What happens to the evidence? What about the two other defendants charged with helping Trump hide classified documents? Will the special counsel write a report, as special counsels usually do?
The sources say all those issues require study and research.
A Trump-led Justice Department was widely expected to move to withdraw the charges against the president-elect.
“Trump’s legal team is giving Smith “breathing room” in the hopes he will end the cases without the president-elect forcing his hand, according to a source familiar with the discussions,” reported The Hill.
“The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again. 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,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
The DOJ’s stance on presidential immunity traces back to a 2000 Office of Legal Counsel memo, which reaffirmed that prosecuting a sitting president would unduly interfere with the executive branch’s operations. This guidance, first issued during Watergate, underscores that impeachment, rather than prosecution, is the constitutionally appropriate avenue to address presidential misconduct.
Under the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice appointed Smith, who subsequently charged Trump with conspiracy to illegally overturn the 2020 election, defraud the United States, and obstruct an official proceeding. In a separate case regarding documents, Trump faced charges for the improper retention of national defense information, obstruction, and making false statements to investigators.
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