A federal judge has dismissed a major lawsuit against Donald Trump alleging that he sought to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who brought criminal charges against Trump, has asked that the charges be dropped, citing a Justice Department policy that prevents prosecution of a sitting president.
Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the case “without prejudice”, meaning the charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term.
Smith also asked that his case against Trump for keeping secret documents be dropped. Trump had denied both charges.
“It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution prohibits federal impeachment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president,” Smith wrote in a filing in the election case.
“This outcome does not depend on the merits and strength of the case against the defendant,” Smith added in the six-page letter.
After leaving office, Trump fell into unprecedented legal territory for a former president, becoming the first to be criminally tried and later convicted, in a case related to payments to veteran film actress Stormy Daniels.
At the beginning of the year, he faced almost 100 criminal charges connected to these two federal cases and others. Then, the Supreme Court ruled this summer that he could not be prosecuted for “official acts” taken as president, and Trump went on to win the election a few months later. Now nearly all of those charges have been dropped, and the prosecution in the state of Georgia has been suspended for now.
Smith’s petition in the document case must also be signed by a judge. He also called for it to be dismissed “without prejudice”.
Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that the federal charges were “empty and illegal, and should never have been brought”.
“It was a political carjacking, and it was a low point in the history of our country that such a thing could happen, however, I persevered, despite all the problems,” he wrote.
Vice President-elect JD Vance said prosecutions are “always political”.
“If Donald J. Trump had lost the election, he would have spent the rest of his life in prison,” he wrote on social media.
Trump had committed to removing Smith as soon as he took office. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in 2022 to handle two investigations into Trump’s conduct. Smith is said to have said he plans to step down next year.
The motion to dismiss Trump’s election-rigging case marks the end of a long legal battle.
Smith had to re-open the election tampering charges against the former president based on the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump was immune from certain prosecutions.
The special counsel argued in the revised lawsuit that Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election were related to his campaign and therefore not legitimate actions.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was also considering Smith’s appeal to continue the classified documents case, in which Trump is accused of keeping dozens of sensitive files at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. see. Trump’s nominee, Judge Aileen Cannon, initially dismissed it because she ruled that Smith was improperly appointed to preside over the case.
When Trump won the 2024 election this month, Smith began taking steps to dismiss both cases, though he said in a Monday filing that an appeal would continue for the other two defendants in the case, Trump staffers Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
Trump’s return to the White House has left many of the criminal charges against him in limbo.
His felony conviction in New York state has been delayed indefinitely.
Trump is also facing federal charges in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the election results there, but that case is facing delays. An appeals court is considering whether to overturn a previous ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to proceed with the case despite her relationship with the prosecutor she hired.
Since Trump won the 2024 presidency, “his criminal problems are disappearing”, said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani.
“It is clear that the sitting president cannot be prosecuted,” he said.
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