OAN Staff Avril Elfie
5:48 PM – Tuesday, November 6, 2024
Special Counsel Jack Smith will consider how to quash two federal lawsuits filed by President-elect Donald Trump in the wake of his election victory.
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President Trump is currently facing charges related to alleged conduct up to January 6th.thand for allegedly storing classified documents in a Florida mansion.
Democratic officials have already insisted that the Trump administration's new Justice Department will eventually drop the charges against Trump, but Smith's team is now pushing to withdraw the case ahead of Inauguration Day anyway. are reportedly in discussion.
The decision came as his team reviewed a memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) warning against charging sitting presidents with crimes.
“The Department concludes that indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting president would impermissibly impair the executive branch's ability to carry out its constitutionally assigned duties,” the OLC, which helps the department develop policy, wrote in a 1973 memo. ”.
President-elect Trump's legal team is giving Smith “breathing space” in the hope that he will abandon the case without being forced by the president-elect, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“The American people re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to make America great again. As President Trump said in his historic speech last night, we will unite our country and improve our nation. It is now abundantly clear that the American people want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system so that we can work together to protect the United States,” Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chan said. He said in a statement:
Smith filed an Espionage Act charge against Trump in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing government attempts to retrieve them, and in Washington, D.C., Trump was accused of conspiring to falsify the 2020 election results. is suing.
Trump entered not guilty pleas and used a thorough legal strategy to postpone both cases until after the election. Smith has also been challenging a federal judge's decision to dismiss the documents lawsuit for several months.
Federal election lawsuits remained at issue over Trump's immunity from prosecution as a former president.
Last month, he said he intended to fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office.
“He'll be one of the first people brought up,” Trump said at the time.
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