Special counsel wants to end federal lawsuits against Trump after winning | News, Sports, Jobs

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks after voting on Election Day at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith is considering how to close two federal cases against Donald Trump before the president-elect takes office, in light of the Justice Department’s longstanding policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, said special counsel Jack Smith, a person familiar with the matter. He said Wednesday.

Smith accused Trump last year of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But Trump’s election defeat of Kamala Harris means the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution under the department’s legal views aimed at protecting presidents from criminal charges while in office.

The person familiar with Smith’s plans was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

By taking action to close the cases before he takes office in January, Smith and the Justice Department will prevent a possible showdown with Trump, who said just last month that he would fire Smith. “In two seconds” from taking office. It also means Trump will enter the White House without the legal cloud of federal criminal prosecutions, which once carried the potential for felony convictions and prison sentences.

NBC News first reported Smith’s plans.

Smith’s two lawsuits accuse Trump of conspiring to overturn the election results as the Capitol riot approached, keeping top-secret records at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida and obstructing FBI efforts to recover them. He was appointed to this position by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022.

The classified documents case has been stalled since July, when Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case on the grounds that Smith was illegally appointed. Smith appealed to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where a request to revive the case is pending. Even if Smith tries to drop the lawsuit against Trump, it seems likely that he will continue to challenge Cannon’s decision on the legality of his appointment, given the precedent such a decision would create.

Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March in the 2020 election interference case; where more than 1,000 of his supporters were convicted of charges for their role in the Capitol riot. But the case was halted after Trump pursued sweeping immunity claims that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump may be encouraged by the Supreme Court’s July decision that granted former presidents blanket immunity from prosecution for actions taken at the White House and expressly barred any alleged conduct related to Trump’s conversations with the Justice Department. This included efforts to use the Justice Department to conduct sham election fraud investigations as part of his bid to stay in power.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine which, if any, of the other allegations in the indictment could be brought to trial.

In response, Smith’s team filed a 165-page brief last month presenting 165 pages of new evidence to persuade the judge that the actions alleged in the indictment were committed in Trump’s private capacity as a candidate, not as commander in chief, and that he could therefore stay. part of the case. Trump’s lawyers are scheduled to file their response later this month.

Meanwhile, in New York, Trump is fighting to overturn his felony conviction and avoid a possible prison sentence for falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. This is his only criminal case to be tried.

A judge is expected to decide next week whether to uphold the ruling, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s July ruling that presidents have broad protections from prosecution.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said he will issue his decision on Trump’s impeachment request on Nov. 12, a week after Election Day. The judge set 26 November for sentencing. “if necessary.” Penalties range from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.

Although Trump technically does not have the power as president to shut down a state-level case like the one in New York, his victory still calls into question that case, as well as a separate lawsuit pending in Fulton County, Georgia, accusing him of plotting to overturn the case. Why does it happen? State election in 2020.