Special counsel Jack Smith said Monday that he is dropping his election subversion case against U.S president-elect Donald Trump, seeking the case’s dismissal in a court filing with the judge.
Trump has said he would fire Smith once he retook the office, shattering previous norms around special counsel investigations.
“The (Justice) Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,” Smith wrote in a six-page filing. “This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.”
Smith’s criminal pursuit of Trump over the last two years for trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election and his mishandling of classified documents represented an extraordinarily unique chapter in American history: Never before has a former occupant of the White House faced federal criminal charges.
Though the election subversion case culminated in a landmark Supreme Court ruling this summer that said Trump enjoyed some presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, Trump’s strategy of delay in the case ensured that a trial never got underway before the election.
This story is breaking and will be updated.