Washington — Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked the federal district court in Washington to waive current deadlines in the 2020 election-related case against President-elect Donald Trump to give prosecutors more time to address the “unprecedented circumstance” arising from his election to be judged on Tuesday. a second term in the White House.
Smith told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in a one-paragraph filing that his office would like more time to “determine the appropriate course of action moving forward, consistent with Department of Justice policy.” He said prosecutors will provide more information to the court by Dec. 2.
Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday in the race for the White House and will be sworn in for a second term on January 20. As a result of Trump’s victory, the Department of Justice and the Office of the Special Counsel discuss how to relax the ongoing federal prosecutions against Trump.
The Justice Department has long had a policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Citing the outcome of the election and Trump’s impending inauguration, Smith told the court that the deadlines set by Chutkan in the pretrial timeline should be removed “to give the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance.”
Trump faces four federal charges in the case stemming from what Smith says was an illegal scheme to undermine the transition of power after the 2020 election. He pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Proceedings in the case were halted for months as Trump claimed he was immune from federal prosecution, all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reigned in July that former presidents cannot be charged as a result of official actions taken while in the White House.
The case returned to Chutkan in August, and a grand jury filed new charges against Trump, who narrowed the allegations against him to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. The two sides have argued in court filings over whether the new charges can stand.