Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal case over the 2020 election to pause all deadlines in the case while prosecutors figure out how to move forward after Trump’s presidential win, as reports suggest Smith plans to end his prosecutions against Trump before the ex-president retakes the White House.
Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Smith asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to pause all deadlines in the federal case—over Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election—saying it will file a status report on Dec. 2 about how prosecutors plan to proceed, and Chutkan granted Smith’s request minutes later.
Smith cited Trump’s election as the reason for the pause, saying the government needs “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”
Reports after Trump’s win suggested Smith and the DOJ are examining how to end their two criminal cases against Trump before Inauguration Day, as they’re planning to follow longstanding DOJ policy that prevents sitting presidents from being prosecuted.
Smith also has to write a final report about his investigations into Trump before ending his work as special counsel, which Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to make public if he finishes during the Biden administration, but would likely remain private were Smith to submit the report to a future Trump-appointed attorney general.
Trump has vowed to fire Smith “within two seconds” when he takes office, if the special counsel hasn’t finished up his work by the time Trump is inaugurated.
What the last months of Smith’s cases against Trump will look like. Politico notes the special counsel has a few different options for how to wind down his cases against Trump—whether he withdraws the charges, resigns and lets the DOJ shut down the cases or tries to keep going with the litigation until the last moment. It’s also still up in the air whether he will try to get a final report out before Trump takes office, with some legal experts pointing out to Politico that it may have little effect given his case against Trump is already largely public through court documents. Anonymous DOJ sources told Politico that Smith is likely to exit DOJ before Trump takes office, though they said it’s still unclear what his work will look like until then and when exactly he will go. Chutkan had been preparing to issue a ruling on which charges against Trump could move forward in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling giving him some immunity from criminal charges, but it also now remains to be seen whether that ruling will ever come out before the charges against Trump are inevitably dropped.
Smith is also in the process of appealing his other criminal case against Trump, which charges the ex-president based on his alleged withholding of White House documents. The special counsel has not yet filed a request to pause that case—which he’s trying to revive after Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed it—but it’s also expected that appeal will be dropped by the time Trump takes office. Trump’s election will not get him out of his conviction in New York on 34 felony counts or the criminal charges against him in Georgia, though it is expected to delay them until after Trump leaves office. Trump’s sentencing in the New York case is scheduled for Nov. 26 but it’s unclear whether it will end up taking place, and he likely wouldn’t have to serve any sentence while he’s president. The Georgia case is already on pause while an appeals court decides whether to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, but Trump’s election will likely keep the case from going to trial until at least 2029. The ex-president will still have to face the civil cases against him, however, including writer E. Jean Carroll’s two defamation cases and the civil fraud case against Trump and his business associates. Trump is appealing all three of those cases after courts ruled against him, and his election will not get him out of paying the more than $560 million—and counting—he now owes in combined legal judgments.
This story is breaking and will be updated.