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The US Department of Justice and special counsel Jack Smith are in talks to wind up two prosecutions against President-Elect Donald Trump, multiple outlets have reported. Neither case will be completed before Trump is inaugurated in January, and the department has a rule against prosecuting sitting presidents.
President-Elect Trump had been charged over allegedly holding on to classified documents after departing the White House in 2021, and for his alleged role in attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. His defense had repeatedly delayed both cases, a strategy that has “clearly paid off,” a constitutional law expert told CNN. After Trump takes office, it is possible that whomever he appoints as attorney general will drop the charges.
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The Justice Department is apparently particularly unwilling for the classified documents case to go unchallenged, The Guardian reported: It was dismissed by a federal judge in Florida on grounds that Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel was illegal, and the department has appealed the decision. Not pursuing it, the outlet wrote, could set a “problematic precedent,” in that it could affect future special counsel appointments in other cases.
The federal cases are not the only outstanding legal issues the president-elect faces that are now almost certainly set to change. In New York state court, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records earlier this year. It’s unclear whether or how that will proceed, the Associated Press wrote. The judge in the case was expected to rule on Nov. 12 on whether to toss the conviction based on a US Supreme Court decision giving presidents broad immunity, with sentencing tentatively scheduled for Nov. 26.
Trump also faced a state challenge in Fulton County, Georgia, for allegedly seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state. The case could potentially be put on hold until Trump’s term is over, but it is possible that any future effort to revive the case could fail.