Special Counsel Jack Smith has moved to cancel a series of deadlines in his Washington, DC criminal case against Donald Trump, alleging he sought to undermine the 2020 election.
It is the first public acknowledgment by Smith’s team that the case cannot proceed in light of Trump’s impending return to power.
“As a result of the elections on November 5, 2024, it is expected that the defendant will be certified as President-elect on January 6, 2025, and inaugurated on January 20, 2025,” prosecutors from the Special Counsel’s Office wrote in the report. archive page Friday.
“The government respectfully requests that the Court release the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to allow the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course of action moving forward, in accordance with the ministry’s policy of Justice,” they wrote.
Justice Department officials had foreshadowed the move earlier this week, guided by longstanding agency policies that prohibit pursuing charges against a sitting president. Friday’s move appears to be a harbinger of the charges being fully dropped and Smith’s likely departure from the department before Trump is inaugurated in January.
