Wednesday, 27 November 2024

BREAKING: Jack Smith Moves To Dismiss All Charges In Federal Election Interference Case Against President Trump

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Special counsel Jack Smith moved to dismiss all charges in the federal election interference case against President Trump.

“As a result of the election held on November 5, 2024, the defendant, Donald J. Trump, will be inaugurated as President on January 20, 2025. It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President. But the Department and the country have never faced the circumstance here, where a federal indictment against a private citizen has been returned by a grand jury and a criminal prosecution is already underway when the defendant is elected President,” a court filing read.

“Confronted with this unprecedented situation, the Special Counsel’s Office consulted with the Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), whose interpretation of constitutional questions such as those raised here is binding on Department prosecutors. After careful consideration, the Department has determined that OLC’s prior opinions concerning the Constitution’s prohibition on federal indictment and prosecution of a sitting President apply to this situation and that as a result this prosecution must be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated. That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind,” it continued.

“Based on the Department’s interpretation of the Constitution, the Government moves for dismissal without prejudice of the superseding indictment under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a). The Government has conferred with defense counsel, who does not object to this motion,” it added.

A closer look:

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Per CBS News:

Special counsel Jack Smith asked a federal district court in Washington on Monday to dismiss the case against President-elect Donald Trump stemming from an alleged scheme to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election, bringing to a close the historic and unprecedented prosecution of the nation’s 45th and 47th president.

In newly filed court documents, federal prosecutors working in Smith’s office told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that they are seeking to close Trump’s case because Justice Department policy forbids the prosecution of a sitting president.

“Jack Smith has filed a motion to dismiss ALL charges against President Trump. The lawfare lost. America won,” Charlie Kirk commented.

MSNBC reports:

Once Trump won the presidential election, that meant that his two federal criminal cases (this one and the classified documents case) would eventually go away, whether by lawyers in the current Justice Department or the next one moving to dismiss, or Trump potentially attempting to pardon himself. The DOJ also has a policy against charging and prosecuting sitting presidents. Smith already was reportedly planning on resigning before Trump, who vowed to fire Smith, took office.

Both federal cases were paused while the courts awaited word from Smith about how he wanted to proceed in the cases due to Trump’s election. Before that, the federal election interference case was back in the trial court with Chutkan, who was tasked with figuring out how to proceed with the case after the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling curtailed Smith’s charges.

In the classified documents case, Smith was appealing U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the case on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed. Unlike the election interference case, Trump has two co-defendants in the classified documents case, which raises additional issues to consider on top of the fact that it is in an appellate court as opposed to the trial court. Like in D.C., Smith told the federal appeals court he would update the court with his plans by Dec. 2.

Read the full court filing HERE.


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