Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is expected to resign before President-elect Trump takes office in January, The New York Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Smith is aiming to resign before the new president is sworn in as a way to end the case against Trump and pre-empt the Republican promise to remove Trump from office “within two seconds.”
President Trump pointed to the Supreme Court's immunity ruling from this summer, which expanded the standard for making presidential acts ineligible for prosecution even after the president has left office.
Fox News reported last week that Smith is considering how to defuse both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case before Trump takes office.
A long-standing Justice Department policy states that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted while in office.
Special Counsel Jack Smith moves to drop Trump election interference case
Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives in Washington, D.C., on August 1, 2023, to speak about the recently unsealed indictment containing four felonies against former President Donald Trump (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Mr. Smith filed a motion on Friday to void all deadlines in the 2020 election interference lawsuit against Mr. Trump in Washington, D.C. This was a widely expected move, but it stopped short of completely dropping the case against Trump. He said Friday that his team plans to provide an update on the official status of the case against Trump on Dec. 2.
Smith is required by Justice Department rules to submit a report of his findings and a statement of charges that prosecutors reviewed and ultimately filed, even though neither case went to trial. .
Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks to members of the media at the Department of Justice Building on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Due to a tight schedule, it is unclear whether Attorney General Merrick Garland will release the report before the end of President Biden's term or whether he will postpone it until the incoming Trump administration takes office, the Times said.
People familiar with the matter told the Times that Smith had no intention of dragging his feet and told career prosecutors and FBI agents on his team who were not directly involved in writing the report that they would not be able to do so in the future. He reportedly told him that he could make plans to retire within the week.
Justice Department aims to quell President Trump's criminal case ahead of Inauguration Day
In Friday's filing, Smith said he needed a month “to assess this unprecedented situation and determine the appropriate path forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith addresses reporters after a grand jury hands down further indictments against former President Trump in Washington, D.C. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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The House Judiciary Committee is concerned that Smith and prosecutors involved in the investigation will “wipe” records to avoid oversight, and will submit all documents related to the investigation to Congress by the end of this month. Fox News Digital previously reported.
Fox News' Breanne Deppisch, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
