In the United States, special prosecutor Jack Smith said this Monday (25) that he is dropping his case against President-elect Donald Trump for electoral subversion, asking for the case to be closed.
Trump said he would fire Smith as soon as he resumed office, breaking previous rules on investigations by special counsels.
“The position of the Department [de Justiça] is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is sworn in,” Smith wrote in a six-page order.
“This result is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant,” he added.
Smith’s criminal charges against Trump over the past two years for attempting 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.
Although the election subversion case culminated in a landmark Supreme Court ruling that said Trump enjoyed partial presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, Trump’s strategy of delaying the case ensured that a trial would not begin before the election.
“The position on the merits of the defendant’s charge has not changed,” Smith said.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was deciding how much of Trump’s conduct at the center of the case is protected by presidential immunity after prosecutors last month laid out their arguments about why the Supreme Court ruling should have no impact on the case.
After Trump won re-election earlier this month, prosecutors asked Chutkan to suspend a series of deadlines in the case while they weighed their next steps.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung in a statement following Smith’s announcement called the move “a huge victory for the rule of law.”
“The American people and President Trump want an immediate end to the political exploitation of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country,” Cheung added.
Trump’s cases in state court will continue
As president, Trump will not have the power to interfere in lawsuits brought against him by state officials in Georgia and New York.
However, the courts in these cases will still have to resolve issues related to presidential immunity and questions raised by his return to the White House.
Last week, the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal bribery case in New York postponed his sentencing indefinitely.
A jury in the state convicted Trump earlier this year of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a bribe payment made during the 2016 campaign to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged a previous affair with the president-elect. (Trump denies the affair.)
And Trump is still working to avoid prosecution in Georgia, where he is a defendant in a wide-ranging case that accuses him and several allies of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state.
This content was originally published in Prosecutor drops case against Trump for attempt to annul 2020 election on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
