Last Tuesday, former President Donald Trump won the 2024 election. His ticket back to the White House also likely means a ticket out of criminal cases brought against him. A step in this direction came on Friday when federal judge Tanya Chutkan approved a request to suspend deadlines in a prosecution of Trump in Washington, D.C.
This case involves four felony charges related to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to current President Joseph Biden. The former and future President pleaded not guilty. He won a major victory in the U.S. Supreme Court over the summer, when the Court adopted a broad vision of presidential immunity. His attorneys had planned to argue that the Supreme Court decision blocked these charges entirely. In the wake of the election, though, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked Chutkan to put the case on hold as the U.S. Department of Justice assesses its next steps.
While the case has not technically ended, the Department of Justice almost certainly will refrain from prosecuting a defendant about to return to the Oval Office. The Office of Legal Counsel in the agency has concluded that this would improperly interfere with the ability of the executive branch to perform its constitutional duties. Smith plans to tell Chutkan what the Department of Justice decides by December 2.
Trump faces three other criminal cases. One of these is a federal prosecution in Florida involving his handling and retention of classified documents. Any decision that the Department of Justice reaches on the Washington, D.C. case likely will apply to the Florida case as well.
The other two cases involve state prosecutions. A jury in New York convicted Trump earlier this year on 34 felony counts. (Trump is the first convicted felon to become President.) The jurors concluded that Trump had falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. The 45th and 47th President also faces prosecution in Georgia related to his alleged interference with the election process there in 2020. Trump’s lawyers likely will seek to have both of the state cases dropped as well.
Also last Friday, two Republicans in Congress sent a letter to Smith, demanding that the Office of Special Counsel preserve all records involving the federal prosecutions of Trump. This indicates that Congress plans to further probe the conduct of the Office during its next session. The GOP won back the Senate last week and seems likely to retain the House, although some races remain uncertain.
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