Special Counsel Jack Smith announced Monday that he is dropping the election subversion and classified documents cases against President-elect Donald Trump, requesting their dismissal in a court filing.
Trump has previously vowed to dismiss Smith upon returning to office, challenging established norms around special counsel investigations.
“The (Justice) Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,” Smith wrote in a six-page filing. “This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.”
Smith’s pursuit of Trump over the past two years for alleged attempts to “overturn” the 2020 presidential election and mishandling of classified documents marked an unprecedented chapter in U.S. history. Never before has a former president faced federal criminal charges.
Although the election subversion case led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling this summer, granting Trump partial presidential immunity, the president-elect’s strategy of delaying proceedings prevented the trial from starting before the election.
Read the court filing here.
