Special counsel Jack Smith, speaking at his office in Washington, made a statement to reporters on the 37-count federal grand jury indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump, charging him with unauthorized retention of classified documents and conspiracy. Obstruction of justice.
Leah Millis | Reuters
A judge on Friday paused proceedings in a criminal election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump, a move that reflects the expected end of the prosecution.
Special counsel Jack Smith, whose team is prosecuting Trump in federal court in Washington, D.C., asks for a pause
Smith told Judge Tanya Chutkan earlier Friday that freeing up the timetable for the remaining pretrial deadlines would give his team “time to evaluate this unprecedented circumstance of Trump’s election victory,” and confirm with Ministry of Justice policy.
“By December 2, 2024, the administration will submit a status report or otherwise notify the court of the outcome of its deliberations,” Smith wrote in Friday’s filing.
Chatkan recognized that deadline in her order, freeing up other deadlines.
Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week was seen as the death knell for Smith’s prosecution of him.
Wednesday, nbc news According to reports, officials from the Ministry of Justice have Assessing how to end the election case and another criminal case against Trump before he is sworn in as president.
Trump has said he plans to fire Smith and is expected to force the Justice Department to end the prosecution.
Because of the Justice Department’s position within the executive branch of government, Justice Department policy prohibits the department from prosecuting the president while in office. The Attorney General who leads the Department of Justice is appointed by the President.
On May 29, 2024, in the criminal hush money trial of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, 12 jurors began to consider his speech to the media.
Doug Mills | AFP | Getty Images
Trump is charged in Chatkan’s case with crimes related to his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, when the Republican was the current president.
Smith also charged Trump in federal court in Florida with crimes related to withholding classified government records after leaving the White House in early 2021, and obstructing officials’ efforts to recover those documents.
Trump nominee Judge Erin Cannon dismissed the case in July, saying the Justice Department violated the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause by appointing Smith as special counsel.
Smith has appealed the dismissal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
But like the criminal election case in Washington, the appeal is considered doomed by Trump’s election victory.
Trump has also been charged in a Georgia court in Atlanta with racketeering and other crimes related to his efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 White House victory.
But Trump is not expected to stand trial in the case while he is president, even though the Justice Department has no control over the prosecution brought by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
The president-elect is also scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 26 in New York state court in Manhattan on nearly three dozen criminal charges including falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels crime.
Trump could face prison time in this case, but he is not expected to serve any such sentence during his term as president.
He was indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in a hush-money case.
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