Special counsel Jack Smith led the Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump. That case is now all but dead.
Saul Loeb
Federal prosecutors have filed a motion to dismiss the Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump.
The move was widely expected.
The “Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,” special counsel Jack Smith said in the filing. “And although the Constitution requires dismissal in this context, consistent with the temporary nature of the immunity afforded a sitting President, it does not require dismissal with prejudice.”
Just a day after the election, Smith began to unwind the federal cases against Trump: the first for clinging to power in 2020, events that resulted in the storming of the U.S. Capitol; the second for hoarding classified documents and obstructing FBI efforts to retrieve them.
Monday’s filing is in line with longstanding Justice Department policy that says a sitting president cannot be indicted or tried on criminal charges because it would violate the Constitution and interfere with the working of the executive branch.
In a statement, Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesman, said the Justice Department’s move “ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump, and is a major victory for the rule of law.”
Over the summer, the U.S. Supreme Court said the Constitution gave the president broad immunity, putting the cases against Trump in peril.