Trump prosecutor Jack Smith resigns from Justice Department

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the federal cases against Donald Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling of classified documents, has resigned, as the Republican president-elect prepared to return to the White House.

Smith resigned on Friday from the Department of Justice, according to a court filing on Saturday to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, asking her to lift a court order she issued blocking release of his final report.

Notice of Smith's resignation came in a footnote in the filing, which said the Special Counsel had completed his work, submitted his final confidential report on Jan. 7, and "separated" from the Justice Department on Jan. 10.

A former war crimes prosecutor, Smith brought two of the four criminal cases Trump faced after leaving office, but saw them grind to a halt after a Trump-appointed judge in Florida dismissed one and the Supreme Court — with three justices appointed by Trump — found that former presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for official acts. Neither case went to trial.

After Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, Smith dropped both cases, citing a longstanding Justice Department rule against prosecuting sitting presidents. In asking courts to dismiss the charges, Smith's team defended the merits of the cases they had brought, signaling only that Trump's impending return to the White House made them untenable.

Smith's departure is another marker of the collapse of the criminal cases against Trump, which could end without any legal consequences for the incoming president and sparked a backlash that helped fuel his political comeback.

Smith's resignation from the Justice Department was expected. Trump, who has frequently called Smith "deranged", had said he would fire him immediately upon taking office on Jan. 20, and has suggested that he may pursue retribution against Smith and others who investigated him once he returns to office.

Trump in 2023 became the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal prosecution, first in New York, where he was charged with trying to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign. Smith's charges followed, accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified material after leaving office and of trying to overturn his 2020 loss, a campaign that sparked the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors in Georgia also charged Trump over his efforts to overturn his election defeat in that state.

Trump claimed political motivation

Trump denied wrongdoing and assailed the prosecutions as politically motivated attempts to damage his campaign. He raised millions in campaign contributions from courthouse appearances and used the cases to drive a powerful narrative that the political establishment was arrayed against him and his supporters.

The Justice Department defended the cases, saying they were run by career prosecutors who operated free of political influence.

Garland appointed Smith in November 2022 — nearly two years after the Capitol attack — to lead the Justice Department's twin ongoing investigations into Trump. That move came just days after Trump announced a campaign to return to the White House in the 2024 election.

Garland, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, said Smith would provide a degree of independence in the highly sensitive investigations. Garland had rebuffed earlier calls to name a special prosecutor, insisting he could appropriately oversee the Trump probes.

Smith returned to Washington from The Hague where he prosecuted war crimes cases arising from the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. He previously led the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section and worked in the federal prosecutor's office in Brooklyn, New York, developing a reputation as a tenacious investigator.

At the Hague, Smith won the conviction of Salih Mustafa, a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander who ran a prison where torture took place during the conflict.

Historic first

The indictments, the first federal cases against a former president, accused Trump of taking highly sensitive national security documents to his Florida resort and using false claims of voter fraud to attempt to derail the collection and certification of votes following his 2020 election loss.

"The attack on our nation's Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies — lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing the bedrock function of the U.S. government," Smith said in announcing the election indictment in August 2023, one of only two public appearances he made during his investigation.

Smith faced a tight window to complete both prosecutions as it was clear Trump would be able to shut them down if he won the election. Both faced legal hurdles.

In the classified documents case, Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, dismissed all charges in July after ruling that Smith was improperly appointed as special counsel.

Smith's office appealed that decision. Prosecutors dropped the appeal relating to Trump following his election win, but signaled they will continue a bid to revive charges against two Trump associates who were accused of obstructing the investigation.

The election case was paused for months while Trump's lawyers mounted an appeal for presidential immunity. The Supreme Court largely sided with Trump in August, ruling Trump could not be prosecuted for many official acts he took as president and sparking more delays in the case.

Smith acknowledged in court papers that his team faced an "unprecedented circumstance" after Trump won the election over Democrat Kamala Harris. His office concluded both cases could not continue.

Trump was convicted of falsifying business records following a trial in the New York hush money case, which was brought by state prosecutors. His sentencing was delayed indefinitely after his election win and Trump's lawyers are seeking to have it dismissed in its entirety.

The Georgia case, which also includes charges against 14 Trump allies, remains in limbo while an appeals court determines if the lead prosecutor, Fani Willis, must be disqualified for misconduct over a romantic affair with a former top deputy. The case against Trump is unlikely to move forward while he remains president.

Contributing: Michael Martina

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