By Darren Lyn
HOUSTON, United States (AA) - Special counsel Jack Smith announced Monday that he has filed motions to drop all federal charges against President-elect Donald Trump due to presidential immunity laws, according to media outlets.
Trump was first indicted in June 2023 on 37 felony counts related to the mishandling of classified documents he took from the White House after he finished his first term in the Oval Office. Federal agents raided his Mar-a-Lago resort in the state of Florida where the FBI confiscated more than 11,000 sensitive government documents and photographs.
Trump was also indicted on four felony charges in August 2023 for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in which he lost to President Joe Biden and led to the deadly storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. The counts included conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
A series of legal wranglings about the legality of charging a former US president -- with Trump being the first former president in American history to be charged with felony crimes -- put the court proceedings on hold. Trump's lawyers argued that a former president could not be charged with crimes that occurred while he was in office.
However, now that Trump will be sworn into his second term of office on Jan. 20, 2025, the laws regarding presidential immunity factored into Smith's decision to dismiss the charges because the Justice Department's position is that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.
"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," Smith's office said in a statement. "The Government’s position on the merits of the defendant’s prosecution has not changed. But the circumstances have."
Trump has claimed from the beginning that the prosecutions were politically motivated. He has never publicly conceded that his rigged election claims were false and he pleaded not guilty in both federal cases.
Smith's decision to drop all federal charges comes a little under two months before Trump is sworn into office. The president-elect vowed during his campaign that if reelected, he would fire Smith the moment he began his second term in the White House.
"Today’s decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump, and is a major victory for the rule of law," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. "The American People and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country."
Smith's announcement of filing to drop the charges comes amid speculation that he will resign as special counsel before Trump is sworn into his second term in office. In his statement, Smith expressed that following Trump's reelection, the special counsel's office was caught between "two fundamental and compelling national interests."
"On the one hand, the Constitution’s requirement that the President must not be unduly encumbered in fulfilling his weighty responsibilities ... and on the other hand, the Nation’s commitment to the rule of law and the longstanding principle that '(no) man in this country is so high that he is above the law,'" said Smith.