Trump cleared: Jack Smith drops election case, DOJ ends classified docs probe
Special Counsel Smith to drop charges against Trump
Judge Tanya Chutkan will need to approve the request before the case is dismissed against President-elect Trump. After Trump’s victory in the presidential election, Smith signaled he would begin winding down the case against Trump. The filing went live on the Department of Justice docket on Monday early afternoon.
WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has filed to drop all felony charges against President-elect Donald Trump in the federal election interference case.
The Justice Department also said it is abandoning its classified documents case against Trump. The announcement in an appeals court filing in Florida.
The move amounts to a predictable but nonetheless stunning conclusion to a criminal case that just one year ago had been seen as the most perilous legal threat that he faced. It reflects the practical consequences of Trump’s victory, ensuring he enters office free from scrutiny over his hoarding of top secret documents and conduct that prosecutors said had jeopardized national scrutiny.
Trump's Communication Director Steven Cheung posted a statement in response to the charges being dropped.
Cheung said the dismissal of charges "ends the unconstitutional federal cases" and is "a major victory for the rule of law."
Smith drops felony charges in election interference case
The move announced in court papers marks the end of the Justice Department's landmark effort to hold Trump accountable for what prosecutors called a criminal conspiracy to cling to power in the run-up to his supporters' attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In court papers. prosecutors said the Justice Department's position "is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated."
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The decision was expected after Smith's team began assessing how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case in the wake of Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. The Justice Department believes Trump can no longer be tried in accordance with longstanding policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
Trump charged in election interference
Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
3 years later: 'We can't let January 6th happen again'
On January 5, People For the American Way President Svante Myrick, along with elected leaders and a coalition of advocates representing tens of millions of Americans will held a press conference to mark three years since Donald Trump and his allies in Congress instigated a violent insurrection that left five people dead, over one hundred officers injured, and our country divided.
Trump was charged with four counts: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to prevent others from carrying out their constitutional right.
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The most serious charges carried up to 20 years behind bars, though it was difficult to say how much time he could face in the event of a conviction.
Prosecutors alleged Trump and his allies knowingly pushed election fraud lies to pressure state officials to overturn Biden's win, worked to enlist slates of fake electors in battleground states and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to disrupt the ceremonial counting of electoral votes.
Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Prosecutors also said Trump and his allies also sought to exploit the pro-Trump mob's attack on the Capitol by trying to convince members of Congress to further delay the certification of Biden’s victory.
Trump charged regarding classified documents
Trump was charged in June 2023 with illegally retaining classified documents taken with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructing government demands to give them back.
Trump search: New image of classified documents taken from Mar-a-Lago released by DOJ | LiveNOW from FOX
An image provided by the Department of Justice shows partially redacted documents with classified markings, including colored cover sheets indicating their status, that FBI agents reported finding at Trump's office in Mar-a-Lago.
He was hit with additional charges the following month accusing him of conspiring to ask a staffer to delete surveillance video at the property, and with holding onto a document -- described by prosecutors as a Pentagon "plan of attack" -- he’s alleged to have shown to visitors at his golf club in New Jersey.
What has Trump said about the charges
Trump has said he did nothing wrong and has characterized the case as an attempt to hurt his 2024 campaign.
His lawyers had argued the election interference case should be dismissed because Trump is immune from prosecution for actions they say were taken in his official role as president.
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The defense also argued Trump was within his First Amendment rights to challenge the outcome of the election and to allege that it had been tainted by fraud. Courts across the country and Trump's own attorney general found there was no widespread fraud that would have changed the results of the election.
With regards to the classified documents, Trump has repeatedly claimed that he declassified the documents that were taken with him to Mar-a-Lago, but there was no evidence that that happened and his own lawyers have not echoed that assertion in court papers.
How Trump's win affected the case
Trump had said that he would fire Smith if he were elected president "within two seconds" of taking office.
Trump’s election defeat of Kamala Harris meant that the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution in accordance with department legal opinions meant to shield presidents from criminal charges while in office.