Legal Case Withdrawals Mark a Turning Point for President-elect Trump

Special counsel Jack Smith’s action on Wednesday to discontinue the 2020 election interference prosecution against Donald Trump has effectively eliminated one of the final significant legal challenges confronting the president-elect. Smith is also withdrawing an appeal of a federal judge’s decision to dismiss his case against Trump concerning the alleged mishandling of sensitive national security documents after leaving the White House in 2021. These two judicial proceedings represented some of the most substantial legal actions against Trump, which had been a persistent concern for over a year as he pursued his path back to the White House. His electoral victory in November, along with the expectation that he would promptly terminate what he referred to as a “political hijacking” of the legal system upon taking office in January, largely diminished the dramatic impact of Smith’s Monday announcement. This development was viewed less as a major legal or political upheaval and more as a reflection of the evolving power dynamics in the nation’s capital. Department of Justice guidelines prohibit the criminal prosecution of a sitting president. In his court filing, Smith indicated that the DoJ recently concluded this legal protection also extends to the prosecution of a private citizen who is subsequently elected president. He writes, “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.” Such emphasis on the strength and validity of the case will offer little comfort to those who had been advocating for Trump to be held accountable for the violence surrounding the 6 January, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by the president-elect’s supporters. The Biden administration and Attorney General Merrick Garland have faced sharp criticism from some on the left, and among Trump opponents on the right, for their perceived slowness in initiating cases against the then-former president after he left office, thereby contributing to the resolution observed on Monday. Federal investigators initially concentrated their efforts on prosecuting individuals directly involved in the Capitol attack, while a special committee of the US House of Representatives, then under Democratic control, conducted hearings and collected testimony against Trump. It was not until Trump launched his third White House campaign in November 2022 that Garland appointed Smith to conduct an independent investigation. This ultimately resulted in 37 counts of document-handling and obstruction of justice against the president in June 2023, followed by four election interference charges two months later. Trump’s legal team vigorously contested these prosecutions, submitting numerous legal challenges to the validity of the claims and delaying any attempt to bring the cases to trial. It was not long before some of these efforts proved successful. With each success, even temporary ones, the calendar drew closer to the November 2024 presidential election, where a victory by the former president could bring these prosecutions to a complete halt. In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that current and former presidents possess broad immunity from criminal prosecution for their official actions, which cast doubt on the election-interference case. Then, in July, the judge overseeing the documents case dismissed those charges, determining that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was invalid because it lacked congressional approval—a requirement not applied to previous investigations. Smith pressed forward, revising his election-interference indictment and appealing the dismissal of the document case. However, the timeframe for any trials had become unfeasible. With Trump’s election victory—and the near certainty that his administration would drop the cases once they assumed power—the final resolution was virtually inevitable. Smith’s decision to abandon the prosecutions amounted to little more than an early termination, a move quickly celebrated by the Trump team. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung stated in a release, “Today’s decision by the DoJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump and is a major victory for the rule of law.” He added, “The American people and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponisation of our justice system, and we look forward to uniting our country.” There remains a possibility that Trump will be sentenced in his New York criminal conviction for hush-money payments earlier this year, but his lawyers are seeking to have that case dismissed. The extensive multi-party indictments for election interference in Georgia are not affected by Smith’s decision, but they are currently in legal limbo amid efforts to remove Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis from the case. Neither situation presently appears to pose a serious legal threat to the incoming president. Smith has committed to continuing his appeal of prosecutions against Trump’s associates in the documents case, but Trump could end that upon taking office in January by exercising his pardoning authority. After years of facing legal jeopardy, Trump’s election victory appears to have largely alleviated those concerns, providing him with four years to focus on governing and implementing his agenda. This is arguably the most immediate and tangible consequence of his return to the pinnacle of political power. More than a year of work by dozens of government lawyers, including hundreds of interviews and subpoenas, and millions of dollars spent, has concluded not with a dramatic courtroom pronouncement, but with the submission of an electronic court filing.