25-11-24, 23:34
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#66
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Jack Smith DROPS Two FED Criminal Cases Without Prejudice Before Inauguration
Prosecutors DROP Election Interference and Documents Cases Against TRUMP - "Without Prejudice."
Special counsel Jack Smith dismisses the two federal criminal cases before president-elects? inauguration
While Trumps Criminal Cases Are On Hold, His Civil Cases Will Continue Full Speed Ahead
The Guardian 25 NOV 2024
Special counsel prosecutors dismissed the two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump in separate court filings on Monday, as they bowed to the reality that they would not be completed or proceed to trial before Trump returns to the presidency next year.
The withdrawals marked the end of the years-long legal battle between Trump and the special counsel Jack Smith, and reflected the extraordinary ability of Trump to sidestep an indictment that would have sunk the presidential bid of anyone else.
Trumps election victory was always going to spell the end of the criminal cases against him over Trumps retention of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election due to justice department policy that prohibits taking criminal action against a sitting president.
But the withdrawals also showed just how successfully Trump, with help from sympathetic judges, managed to beat the justice system with an audacious play of using a presidential campaign and the political calendar to sidestep deeply perilous charges.
In a six-page motion to dismiss the 2020 election interference case, prosecutors said even though Trump was not yet president, they had been told by the departments office of legal counsel, which provides internal legal advice, to withdraw the case before his inauguration in January.
It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President, wrote Smiths top deputy, Molly Gaston.
That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Governments proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind, she added.
Moments later, prosecutors told the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit that they were withdrawing their challenge against the earlier dismissal of the classified documents case with respect to Trump.
But they said they would continue trying to bring cases against Trumps co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira - although it was unclear whether those charges would also be dropped once Trumps loyalist attorney general pick, Pam Bondi, takes over the justice department.
From the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, the site of the presidential transition where Trump allegedly stashed 101 classified documents after he left office and was indicted after ignoring a subpoena for their return, Trumps communications director, Steven Cheung, issued a gleeful statement on the news.
Todays decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump, and is a major victory for the rule of law. The American People and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system,? Cheung wrote.
Within days of Trumps victory, prosecutors started examining how to shut down the 2020 election case in federal district court in Washington, and the more complicated matter of the classified documents case that was before the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit.
For months, Trumps overarching legal strategy was to delay the criminal cases until after Tuesdays election banking on the fact that if he won he could appoint a loyalist attorney general who would simply drop the prosecutions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbIO-1qBVuc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMbFBk6q9pM
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