Prosecutor drops all federal charges against Trump

Special counsel, Jack Smith, yesterday filed motions to drop all federal charges against President-elect Donald Trump regarding his mishandling of classified documents and his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the lead-up to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol.
Trump was first indicted in June 2023 in a federal court in Miami on 37 felony counts related to mishandling classified documents that he took from the White House to his Florida home.
They included willful retention of national defense information, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. A Florida judge dismissed the case, but Smith’s office had sought an appeal.
Trump was separately indicted on four felonies in August 2023 for his attempt to reverse the 2020 election results: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
The case was then put on hold for months as Trump’s team argued that the case should be thrown out for multiple reasons, including that a former president cannot be prosecuted for his actions in office.
Trump has claimed that the prosecutions were politically motivated. He has never publicly conceded that his election claims were, in fact, false, and he pleaded not guilty in both federal cases.

The federal indictments of Trump marked an extraordinary moment in American history — the first-ever accusation that a president sought illegally to cling to power, mishandled classified information and attempted to obstruct a federal investigation.

Their dismissal also marks a historic moment. Fifty years after lawmakers from both parties forced Richard Nixon to resign the presidency amid allegations of criminal conduct in office, half of American voters chose to return Trump to the presidency.

Trump’s election victory means that the Justice Department’s longstanding position that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime will apply to Trump after he takes office on Jan. 20.

“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,” Smith’s office wrote in Monday’s filing.

“The Government’s position on the merits of the defendant’s prosecution has not changed. But the circumstances have,” the special counsel added.