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New legal victory for Donald Trump since special prosecutor Jack Smith recommended dropping charges against him in two federal cases, on the grounds that he is the new president-elect.
UNITED STATES – The decision was expected… and predictable. As Donald Trump is being prosecuted for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election and for keeping classified documents in his Florida residence, the special prosecutor who investigated the cases against him, Jack Smith, has recommended this Monday, November 25, the cessation of prosecutions in these two cases. Good news for the now 47th American president, who has also just seen his sentencing in the Stormy Daniels affair postponed.
Jack Smith asked a federal judge in Washington this Monday to dismiss the indictment against the new president-elect, accused of having plotted to change the results of the 2020 election which notably led to the assault on Capitol. According to the New York Timesa few minutes later Jack Smith made a similar request to an Atlanta appeals court, responsible for studying the second federal case targeting Trump: that of the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Donald Trump’s team welcomed a “ major victory. “Today’s decision by the Department of Justice ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump and is a major victory for the rule of law”applauded its communications director, Steven Cheung, in a press release relayed by AFP.
Do not prosecute sitting presidents
In both cases, the prosecutor invoked a policy of the Ministry of Justice according to which current presidents cannot be prosecuted during their mandate, recalls the New York Times. A policy that “ is categorical and does not depend on the seriousness of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s evidence, or the merits of the prosecution, which the government fully supports,” the attorney general wrote to Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is handling the 2020 election interference case.
A victory for Trump certainly, but an incomplete victory since Jack Smith requested prosecution without prejudging the continuation of events, which is called a dismissal “without prejudice” in the United States. This therefore leaves the possibility that prosecutions will be relaunched after the end of Donald Trump’s mandate.
The billionaire’s electoral victory “puts two fundamental and compelling national interests in contradiction”wrote the Attorney General to Tanya Chutkan, reports MSNBC. “On the one hand, the Constitution’s requirement that the President be not unduly encumbered in the exercise of his onerous responsibilities…and on the other hand, the nation’s commitment to the rule of law and the long-standing principle that ‘no man in this country is so powerful that he is above the law’. »
Source: www.huffingtonpost.fr
