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Special counsel Jack Smith resigned just days before President-elect Trump is set to take over the presidency, multiple outlets reported Saturday.
Why it matters: Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in Nov. 2022, spearheaded two federal criminal cases against Trump, but the future of both cases was imperiled by Trump’s election victory.
- Trump is the first convicted felon to win the presidency, but he avoided any consequences in his New York hush money case.
- With Trump’s victory, Smith’s cases — over the 2020 election and classified documents — were imperiled and weeks after the election, he requested the former to be dropped and his appeal in the latter to be dismissed.
- The two cases had already been undercut by the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
- However, a federal appeals court said this week that Smith’s final report on his investigations into Trump can be released despite the president-elect’s strenuous objections.
- The New York Times first reported on Nov. 13, that Smith planned to resign once the report was complete.
State of play: Since Trump’s re-election, Smith was in discussions with Justice Department officials about how to wind down his two federal prosecutions of Trump.
- The Justice Department has a longstanding policy that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted.
- Trump also vowed on the campaign trail to fire Smith “within two seconds” of returning to office.
Zoom out: The Justice Department has faced criticism from some Democrats that it moved too slowly in its investigations of Trump.
- In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Smith dug in on the Jan. 6 case, unsealing a new indictment in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and unveiling new evidence.
Go deeper: Jack Smith moving to wind down prosecutions against Trump