Special counsel Jack Smith asked a federal judge on Monday to dismiss the case accusing President-elect Donald Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, citing a long-standing Justice Department policy that shields presidents from prosecution while in office.
The move announced in court papers marks the end of the Justice Department’s historic efforts to hold Trump accountable for what prosecutors described as a criminal conspiracy to cling to power in the run-up to his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Justice Department prosecutors, citing the department’s longstanding guidance that a sitting president cannot be tried, said the department’s position is that “the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated.”
“This prohibition is categorical and does not depend on the seriousness of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s evidence, or the merits of the prosecution, which the government fully supports,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing Monday.
The decision was expected after Smith’s team began evaluating how to close the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents issue in the wake of Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. The Justice Department believes Trump can no longer be prosecuted under the longstanding policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
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Trump considered both cases politically motivated, and pledged to fire Smith as soon as he took office in January.
The 2020 election case filed last year was seen as one of the most serious legal threats facing the Republican as he vies to reclaim the White House. But it quickly foundered amid a legal fight over Trump’s sweeping claims of immunity from prosecution for actions he committed while in the White House.
In July, the US Supreme Court ruled for the first time that former presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution, remanding the case to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine which, if any, allegations in the indictment can go to trial.
The case was just beginning to pick up steam again in the lower court in the weeks leading up to this year’s election. Smith’s team in October filed a lengthy memorandum containing new evidence they planned to use against him at trial, accusing him of using “recourse to crimes” in an increasingly desperate attempt to overturn the will of voters after his loss to President Joe Biden.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
