Keystone-SDA
The special prosecutor investigating the case against Donald Trump for illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and withholding classified documents, Jack Smith, recommended on Monday that the prosecution be stopped. This because he is now president.
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November 25, 2024 – 8.18pm
(Keystone-ATS) 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 50 years ago by the Department of Justice, consisting of not prosecuting a sitting president.
“Unprecedented”, but
Although the case of a candidate being criminally prosecuted and then elected president is “unprecedented,” the department concluded during deliberations with the special prosecutor’s office that this policy “applies to this situation,” explains Jack Smith in his asks Judge Tanya Chutkan.
But 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.
Jack Smith had already embarked on this path by obtaining from the judge, a few days after the vote of November 5 which resulted in the victory of the Republican presidential candidate, the cancellation of all the deadlines on the calendar of this affair.
He motivated his request by the need to give the prosecution “time to analyze this unprecedented situation and determine the course of action to follow in accordance with Department of Justice policy.”
Possible options
Back in the White House, Donald Trump could either appoint a new Justice Minister who would fire Jack Smith or simply order his Justice Department to drop the charges against him.
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