Special Prosecutor Recommends Ending Prosecution of Donald Trump for Election Interference

The new president of the United States had promised to fire the prosecutor if he was re-elected.

The announcement was expected. The special prosecutor who is investigating the case against Donald Trump for illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election, Jack Smith, recommended Monday, November 25, that the prosecution be stopped on the grounds that the billionaire was now the president-elect. Donald Trump's campaign team immediately welcomed a “major victory for the rule of law”.

Jack Smith is thus complying with a policy adopted more than fifty years ago by the Department of Justice, consisting of not prosecuting a sitting president. Although the case of a candidate criminally prosecuted and then elected president is “unprecedented”the department concluded, in deliberations with the special prosecutor's office, that this policy “applies to this situation”explains Jack Smith in his request to Judge Tanya Chutkan.

He asked the judge to end the proceedings without prejudging the course of events, which leaves open the possibility that they could be relaunched at the end of Donald Trump's mandate. Returning to the White House in January, Donald Trump could either appoint a new Justice Minister who would fire Jack Smith or simply order his department to drop the charges against him.