Jack Smith Officially Gives Up Both Cases Against Trump, Drops All Charges

Special counsel Jack Smith filed court papers Monday to dismiss the federal indictment that accuses President-elect Donald Trump of conspiring to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

Smith also moved to drop his appeal of a judge's decision to throw out the indictment against Trump for allegedly hoarding classified material at his Florida resort.

Smith insisted the decision to drop the four felony counts involving the election results and the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol had nothing to do with the evidence against Trump, NBC News reported.

Smith's prosecution team wrote that the decision was based on a longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.

"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," the filing said.

Prosecutors also said that "the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated," according to the Associated Press.

Trump has repeatedly accused Smith of conducting a "witch hunt" against him and vowed to fire the special counsel immediately after taking office on Jan. 20.

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said Monday's court filings ended the "unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump" and called the development "a major victory for the rule of law."

"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," Cheung said.

Trump's efforts to defeat the election case led to a July ruling by the Supreme Court that granted presidents broad immunity from prosecution over their official acts.

In response, Smith filed a revised indictment that left the original charges intact but removed some allegations involving an alleged coconspirator identified in news reports as former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.

A prosecution court filing unsealed last month also alleged that Trump said, "So what?" when an aide told him that his vice president, Mike Pence, had been taken to a secure location to protect him from the mob of Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol.

Trump had called on Pence to refuse to certify his Electoral College loss to Biden and said on social media during the riot, "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done."

A noose was hung outside the Capitol and some of Trump's supporters chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!"

In the classified documents case, Trump was accused of illegally stashing classified documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and of stymying government efforts to retrieve them.

That indictment was dismissed in July by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee who ruled that Smith didn't have the legal authority to handle the case following his November 2022 appointment by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In a 93-page order, Cannon said that Congress had a "pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers" that "cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere."

In addition to Trump, Cannon's ruling also dismissed charges against codefendants Walt Nauta, a Trump aide, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira.