Special counsel Jack Smith has asked the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s January 6 criminal trial to halt further proceedings following his stunning victory on election night.
He is asking for a one-month delay for his team to “assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course of action moving forward, in accordance with Department of Justice policy.”
The move to quit comes after Smith and his team attempted to continue a brutal case in previous cases over the year, and reflects the stunning new reality of the case.
Smith points to the Justice Department’s existing policy that no sitting president can be prosecuted. Although Trump remains president-elect, the January 6 case would extend well into his presidency.
Trump is expected to be formally certified as president-elect on January 6, 2025, and sworn in on January 20.
He was indicted in the bomb case in August 2023 on charges of attempting to overturn the election in the run-up to January 6.
The two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump are likely to be concluded before he enters the White House, according to reports hours after his landslide election victory over Kamala Harris
Legal experts also predict that the case against Trump over classified documents — he is accused of bringing national security documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House and obstructing justice — will also end.
Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon has already dismissed the case, and prosecutors are currently appealing to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
It’s a huge blow to Smith, who stepped up his game in the final months of the campaign, spending nearly three years and more than $35 million in taxpayer money trying to bring the 78-year-old former president to justice.
Trump has publicly criticized the career prosecutor, calling him “deranged” and saying he should be deported.
House Republicans, who have a good chance of retaining a razor-thin majority in the House, are stepping up their investigation into the Jan. 6 House committee, which operated under Democratic control.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk wrote to Smith asking him to preserve records related to their investigation.
Trump still faces sentencing next month in the New York hush money trial and the election interference case in Georgia led by District Attorney Fani Wills is beset by a slew of problems.
But these two cases could easily fall apart now that Trump is the first president to be elected after being convicted of a crime — on 34 counts of falsifying financial documents in the Stormy Daniels trial.
Judge Juan Merchan must now decide whether to concede the “immunity” arguments raised by Trump’s defense in light of a Supreme Court ruling, and what to do at sentencing, currently scheduled for 26 November.
Trump is charged four times in federal court in Washington, DC, with spreading false claims of election fraud in an attempt to block the collection and certification of votes after the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
He asked federal courts to grant him presidential immunity, delaying the D.C. case for months, though the federal judge overseeing the case is still deciding to what extent Trump is actually covered by presidential immunity due to his efforts to cover his 2020 election loss to undo.
Smith filed a new superseding complaint in the wake of the Conservative majority’s 6-3 decision.
Since Trump won’t be sworn in until Inauguration Day on January 20, prosecutors technically still have weeks to charge him if they wish.
But like previous efforts, they would be vulnerable to challenge and attraction.
“The ball is in DOJ’s court. I think we’ll hear something in the next 48 to 72 hours,” said a source close to Trump’s defense. “The DOJ doesn’t want to get into a situation where they’re litigating a case that’s pointless.”
Smith had also accused Trump of unlawfully withholding classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after his first term expired in 2021 and obstructing US government efforts to retrieve the documents.
Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the court by Trump, dismissed all charges in July after finding that Smith was improperly appointed to the role and lacked standing to hear the case.
The ruling brought an abrupt end to the case and ensured that no trial would take place before the presidential election.
Smith’s team is appealing the ruling, but Trump’s promise to fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office likely spells the end of the case.
Former President Donald Trump faced 88 criminal charges earlier this year
But even if it extended to the time Trump took office, he could shut it down.
With Republicans taking control of the Senate, Trump is not expected to have difficulty confirming his Cabinet officials, with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) already pointing to his mandate and saying he deserves to appoint his own people to bring in.
The DOJ’s moves come after a year of extraordinary legal developments, spurred in part by the DOJ’s decision to take its time before filing charges.
Smith then embarked on a frantic effort to move things forward on multiple fronts as election deadlines loomed.
Trump took advantage of the many political persecutions, arguing that he was the victim of “justice” and “crazy” prosecutors.
A key factor in the situation is a decades-old memo from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel.
“The Department concluded that the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the ability of the Executive Branch to carry out its constitutionally assigned duties,” the Department said.
There is no mention of the presidential transition period, although Trump’s team claims the Presidential Transition Act lists presidential authorities that would provide the same protections.
Further reinforcing Trump’s stance is the Supreme Court’s decision in the Jan. 6 case, which established presidential “immunity” from prosecution while in office, with lower courts still determining what conduct is and is not protected.