Special Counsel Jack Smith is likely to step down from his position after ending his cases against President-elect Donald Trump, according to Wednesday reports.
A Justice Department source told CNN that Smith is in talks with DOJ leaders about how best to wind down the Jan. 6 case as well as an appeal of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling over the summer to throw out his classified documents case against the soon-to-be 47th president.
“Trump has threatened to fire Smith, but Smith expects to be gone before Trump takes office,” CNN reported.
“The talks between Smith and DOJ leaders extend beyond Trump’s criminal cases to questions about what to do with other defendants in the classified documents case as well as the special counsel’s office and what happens to its budget and staff,” the outlet continued.
Smith is required to submit a report on his work to Attorney General Merrick Garland. It remains unclear whether the timing of Smith’s departure will be affected if the report needs to be reviewed and approved by the intelligence community, according to sources familiar with the discussions, CNN said.
Smith is working to finalize the report before Trump takes office, as Garland will need to approve it and decide whether any part of it will be released publicly, one source said. The New York Times was the first to report Smith’s plans to resign from his post.
As president, Trump is afforded protections against prosecution that he didn’t have as a private citizen. Longstanding Justice Department policy dictates that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for crimes, and a Supreme Court ruling this summer confirmed that Trump has “absolute” immunity from prosecution for actions taken within his core constitutional powers as president, CNN said.
Before his departure, Smith will need to determine how to resolve the two criminal cases he initiated against Trump. In Florida, Smith has appealed Cannon’s decision to dismiss the classified documents case, which found that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed as special counsel and that the funding for his office also violated the law.
In Washington, D.C., Smith’s team is moving forward with the criminal case accusing Trump of orchestrating a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election following the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, CNN noted.
The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to let Mark Meadows, who used to be Trump’s chief of staff in the White House, move the election interference case against him from Georgia to federal court. He wanted to argue that he was not guilty and should not be charged.
The justices rejected his appeal and did not explain why they made the decision they did, the Associated Press reported.
Nineteen people were charged in Georgia with taking part in a plot to keep President Trump in office after he lost the 2020 election. Meadows was one of them. Also charged was Trump, but since he was re-elected last week to a second term, it doesn’t look like he will be put on trial while he is still in office. Both men have said they did nothing wrong.
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George Terwilliger, Meadows’ lawyer, said that Meadows will keep arguing in state court that he is innocent and that he expects to be found not guilty.
It’s not clear what the election results could mean for other people charged in the case. The case is mostly on hold because an appeals court agreed to look into whether to fire Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis because she was dating the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case.
Meadows argued the case should be heard in federal court since it has to do with his job as a federal officer.
