Justice Department officials are exploring how to close out the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump before he assumes office, aiming to uphold the department’s long-standing policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, according to two individuals familiar with the matter, as reported by NBC News.
These recent discussions contrast with special counsel Jack Smith’s pre-election approach, where he moved forward on the election interference case against Trump without regard to the electoral schedule.
However, DOJ officials now acknowledge that holding a trial soon is unlikely in either the Jan. 6 case or the classified documents case. Both cases are tangled in complex legal issues that could require appeals up to the Supreme Court, regardless of Trump’s election outcome.
With Trump’s return to the presidency imminent, DOJ officials see no feasible path to proceed with the criminal cases and little reason to continue litigating in the interim before he takes office, according to the sources.
Former federal prosecutor and NBC News contributor Chuck Rosenberg called the development “sensible, inevitable and unfortunate.”
The legal trajectory of Trump’s charges, coupled with his sweeping election victory, marks an unprecedented situation in U.S. history.
According to the sources, the ultimate decision on how to wind down the charges rests with Smith, leaving many open questions. Could the prosecutions resume after Trump leaves office, or would they be time-barred? What will become of the evidence? And for the two other defendants charged with assisting Trump in concealing classified documents, what lies ahead? Lastly, will the special counsel issue a report, as is typical for such cases?
