Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has led two federal prosecutions against Donald Trump, will resign along with other members of his team before the president-elect assumes office in January, sources told the New York Times.
Smith charged Trump last year with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Smith now plans to “finish his work and resign” before Trump has the chance to remove him, individuals familiar with his plans said. Trump, in an October interview, vowed to fire Smith “within two seconds” of getting into office.
Trump’s election victory last week effectively ended the federal cases against him, as the Justice Department has long held that a sitting president cannot be indicted or prosecuted, the Times reported. A Supreme Court ruling this summer further expanded the scope of presidential immunity, granting former presidents broad protection from criminal prosecution for acts performed in office.
In the 2020 election case, a federal judge agreed to extend Smith’s filing deadline to Dec. 2, after the special counsel’s team on Friday said they needed more time “to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”
The classified documents case is under appeal in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals after the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissed it.
Republicans have criticized Smith’s investigations as a partisan effort to undermine Trump, accusing Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department. On Friday, Republican lawmakers instructed DOJ officials involved in the Trump cases to preserve all related documents for congressional investigators, signaling a GOP-led inquiry into the conduct of Smith and his team.
On Tuesday, the judge presiding over Trump’s New York hush money case delayed a decision on whether the president-elect’s felony counts of falsifying business records should be dropped due to presidential immunity. Many legal experts predict that Trump will not be sentenced since he won the election, according to Politico.
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