WASHINGTON – Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith asked Monday to dismiss the criminal case against President-elect Donald Trump for allegedly trying to steal the 2020 election.
The request was expected after Smith asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to halt all deadlines in the case. A longstanding department policy bars prosecuting sitting presidents, so Smith was expected to wind down both federal cases against Trump after he won the Nov. 5 election to return to the White House.
“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 his six-page filing. “That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind.”
Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump participates in a fireside chat with Tucker Carlson at ‘Tucker Carlson Live on Tour’ at Desert Diamond Arena, in Glendale, Arizona, on Oct. 31, 2024.
Chutkan didn’t immediately rule on the request, but Trump’s lawyers didn’t oppose it.
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Smith was also expected to drop his appeal of the dismissal of charges that Trump mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House at the end of his first term. But there was public filing in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals docket by noon Monday.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the charges by ruling Smith was appointed illegitimately. Smith appealed the decision.
The charges in the election-interference case had accused Trump of conspiracy for urging state lawmakers to replace the state’s presidential electors with Republicans despite Democrat Joe Biden winning the state. Trump was also charged with obstruction of Congress for encouraging a mob of supporters protest at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when lawmakers were counting Electoral College votes to certify Biden’s victory.
Chutkan was in the midst of weighing whether Trump was immune from the federal charges under a Supreme Court ruling in July. The high court decided former presidents are presumed shielded from criminal charges for official acts in office but vulnerable to charges for private acts.
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Trump has argued he was acting in his official role when he urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Democratic electors from key states and replace them with GOP electors, and when he encouraged federal and state officials to pursue baseless claims of election fraud. But Smith has argued he was acting privately for his own benefit through electioneering to remain in office.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jack Smith asks to dismiss Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump
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