Special Counsel Jack Smith resigned from his position on Friday after completing two criminal investigations into President-elect Donald Trump.
In a footnote in a motion submitted to US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Saturday, it said that Smith had completed his work and separated from the Department on January 10.
That motion was urging Cannon not to extend a court order that she issued last week blocking the release of Smith’s final report.
Lawyers for Trump had persuaded the Trump-appointed judge to block the release of the volume of Smith’s report pertaining to their case before her.
Trump was charged with willful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, in a case Cannon dismissed this summer that was on appeal when Trump won the November election.
Trump’s team had also asked an appeals court to block the release of the entire two-volume report.
Legal filings released earlier this week indicate that Smith had accused Trump of being ‘the head of the criminal conspiracies,’ and his footnotes indicate the combined reports run beyond 200 pages.
Another of the case’s led by Smith focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead up to January 6.
Neither of Smith’s cases against Trump reached trial and the president-elect has fiercely maintained his innocence during the ‘political’ prosecution.
In a footnote in a motion submitted to US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Saturday, it said that Smith had completed his work and separated from the Department on January 10
Another of the case’s led by Smith focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead up to January 6
Reports had emerged in November of last year that he was planning on stand down ahead of Trump assuming office.
Sources close to Smith told the New York Times he wanted to finish his work and avoid being fired ‘within two seconds’ of Trump being sworn in on January 20.
Trump was indicted in August 2023 on felony charges of seeking to overturn the election in the run-up to January 6.
In November Smith moved to have the charges against Trump dropped, asking Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to dismiss the case without prejudice because of policy prohibiting prosecuting a sitting president.
The judge complied with his request, and agreed with Smith’s verbiage on a dismissal ‘without prejudice’, which technically could allow charges to come back after Trump leaves office.
‘Dismissal without prejudice is appropriate here,’ Chutkan wrote.
‘Dismissal without prejudice is also consistent with the Government’s understanding that the immunity afforded to a sitting President is temporary, expiring when they leave office,’ she added.
In the classified documents case, Trump’s team argue that the report, under DOJ regulations, merely spews ‘conspiracy theories,’ and say it is unfair to release it, saying it violates his presumption of innocence. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to attack Jack Smith publicly.
One of the volumes in Smith’s report relates to Trump’s possession of national security documents to Mar-a-Lago
The DOJ said the volume on the classified documents case would be provided to key members of Congress for both parties for private review in redacted form.
‘This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendant´s interests,’ DOJ wrote.
Once Trump takes office January 20th, his own Justice Department will get to make determinations on whether the report on the classified documents case ever gets released. Trump has repeatedly called the prosecutions against him ‘witch hunts.’
He has nominated loyalist former Florida AG Pam Bondi to lead the agency.
Both of Trump’s codefendants in the case, longtime valet Waltine Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, have been in his longtime employ. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges against them.
The president-elect also made a series of personal jabs at Smith on Tuesday calling him ‘mean and nasty’ and accusing him of executing people.
‘They brought this moron out of The Hague. He’s a mean guy. He’s a mean, nasty guy,’ Trump said, referring to Smith’s prior assignment prosecuting war crimes at the Hague.
Trump tore into the special counsel during an hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago where he also refused to rule out military force to obtain Greenland and regain control of the Panama Canal.
‘[Smith’s] picture was perfect, because you look at his picture, you say that’s a bad guy with his robe – his purple robe – and he executes people. He shouldn’t be allowed to execute people, because he’ll execute everybody. He’s a nutjob. But we won all of those cases with him.’
Smith’s team asked a judge to set aside the January 6 case, saying ‘This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant’
He went on praise ‘brilliant’ Judge Cannon in Florida who ruled that Smith’s special counsel appointment was unlawful last year.
The release of a major final report by a special counsel can be an explosive event. Special Counsel Robert Hur’s final report on the Hunter Biden saga last spring contained damaging language calling President Joe Biden an ‘elderly man with a poor memory’ that reverberated through the campaign.
Trump’s team says a ‘one-sided, improper report’ would violate the presidential immunity principles established by the Supreme Court.
They were able to view the draft report in D.C., and say its first volume ‘asserts, without any jury determination, that President Trump and others ‘engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,’ was ‘the head of the criminal conspiracies,’ and harbored a ‘criminal design.’
They cite page 68 and 69 of the still unseen draft report, with other citations running through page 108.
The second volume ‘asserts that Trump ‘violated multiple federal criminals laws,’ with citations up to page 121 – suggestion a lengthy report of beyond 200 pages.
