Judge dismisses special counsel's election case against Trump
· BBC NewsMadeline Halpert
BBC News, New York
A federal judge has dismissed a major case against Donald Trump that alleged he illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election.
Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who brought the criminal case against Trump, had asked to have the charges dropped, citing a Justice Department policy that bans the prosecution of a sitting president.
Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the case "without prejudice", meaning the charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term.
Smith has also asked to have his case charging Trump with improperly storing classified documents dismissed. Trump had pleaded not guilty in both cases.
“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,” Smith wrote in a filing in the election case.
“This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant,” Smith added in the six-page filing.
After leaving office, Trump crossed into unprecedented legal territory for a former president, becoming the first to face a criminal trial and later conviction, in a case tied to a payment made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
At the beginning of the year, he faced nearly 100 criminal charges connected to the two federal cases and others. Then, the Supreme Court ruled this summer that he could not be prosecuted for "official acts" taken as president, and Trump went on to win the election a few months later. Now almost all those charges have been dropped, with a Georgia state prosecution currently on pause.
Smith's request in the documents case, also seeking a dismissal "without prejudice", must also be approved by a judge,
Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social that the federal cases were "empty and lawless, and should never have been brought".
"It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds," he wrote.
Vice-President-elect JD Vance said the prosecutions were "always political".
"If Donald J. Trump had lost an election, he may very well have spent the rest of his life in prison," he wrote on social media.
Trump had pledged to get rid of Smith as soon as he took office. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in 2022 to take over the two federal investigations into Trump’s conduct. Smith has reportedly said he plans to step down next year.
The request to dismiss Trump’s election subversion case marks an end to a lengthy legal saga.
Smith had to refile the election-subversion charges against the former president based on the Supreme Court ruling that Trump was immune from some prosecution.
The special counsel had argued in a revised indictment that Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were related to his campaign and therefore not official acts.
The Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit was also weighing an appeal from Smith to carry on with the classified documents case, in which Trump was accused of storing dozens of sensitive files in his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. Trump-appointee Judge Aileen Cannon initially dismissed it because she ruled Smith was improperly appointed to lead the case.
When Trump won the 2024 election this month, Smith began to take steps to wind down both cases, though he said in the Monday filing that the documents appeal would continue for two other defendants in the classified documents case, Trump employees Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
Trump’s return to the White House left several state-level criminal cases against him in limbo, too.
His sentencing for his criminal conviction in the state of New York has been indefinitely delayed.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, where Trump also faces election subversion charges, an appeals court is considering whether to overturn a previous ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to stay on the case despite a relationship she had with a prosecutor she hired.
Since Trump won the 2024 presidency, “his criminal problems go away”, said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani.
“It’s well established that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted,” he said.