Trump’s election victory means the end of his lawsuits: NPR

Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an unsealed indictment against former President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC

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Donald Trump began this year fighting two federal prosecutions that threatened to send him to prison. But he will finish it free and clear of his most significant criminal problems.

With his resounding victory at the polls and a longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president, the key question is not if, but when, prosecutors will move to dismiss or delay his federal election interference case in Washington, DC

Trump recently said he would fire special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” of his return to the White House. Now, it won’t be necessary to end his federal criminal troubles.

Smith is taking steps to end both federal cases against Trump before the president-elect takes office, according to a source familiar with the Justice Department’s deliberations.

A grand jury in Washington indicted Trump this year on four felony charges related to his efforts to cling to power in 2020, culminating in the violent siege of the US capital on January 6, 2021.

Judge Tanya Chutkan had set a trial date of March 2024, but that date came and went after the Supreme Court accepted the case and ultimately granted Trump significant immunity from prosecution for official actions he took in the White House.

The judge has just now begun to consider what parts of the prosecution’s case constitute official acts and which are private conduct of a person seeking to hold office. That process will likely stop soon, or after the inauguration in January.

The Justice Department has appealed a separate criminal case against Trump that accuses the former president of hoarding classified documents at his Mar a Lago resort and refusing to return them to the FBI.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, dismissed the case on the first day of the Republican National Convention this year, on the grounds that the way the special counsel had been appointed is unconstitutional. The Justice Department has sought review in a higher court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.