Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith is expected to resign before President-elect Trump is inaugurated in January, the New York Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Smith is aiming to bring to an end his cases against Trump and step down before the new president takes office as a way to get ahead of the Republican’s promise to fire him ‘within two seconds.’
Trump has pointed to a Supreme Court immunity ruling from this summer that broadened the criteria for official presidential conduct ineligible for prosecution even after a president is no longer in office.
Smith has been evaluating how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case before Trump takes office, Fox News reported last week.
Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office.
Smith on Friday filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against Trump in Washington, D.C., a widely expected move, but one that stops short of dropping the case against him completely. He said Friday that his team plans to give an updated report on the official status of the case against Trump on Dec. 2.
Smith is required under DOJ regulations to submit a report of his findings and an explanation of the charges the prosecutor considered and ultimately filed – even though neither case made it to trial.
Under a crunched timeline, it is unclear if Attorney General Merrick Garland would make that report public before the end of President Biden’s term or defer to the incoming Trump administration, according to the Times.
Sources close to the matter told the Times that Smith has no intention of dragging his feet, and has informed career prosecutors and FBI agents on his team not directly involved in preparing the report that they can plan their exits in the coming weeks.
In Friday’s filing, Smith said he needed a month ‘to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.’
The House Judiciary Committee is concerned that Smith and prosecutors involved in the investigations will ‘purge’ records to skirt oversight and is demanding they produce to Congress all documents related to the probes before the end of the month, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch, Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
