Special prosecutor resigns after submitting investigative report on Trump

Special prosecutor Jack Smith has resigned from his position in the US Justice Department after submitting an investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump, according to AP.

The US Justice Department disclosed the departure of special prosecutor Smith in a court filing on January 11, announcing that Mr. Smith resigned on January 10. Mr. Smith's resignation came after two criminal prosecutions against Mr. Trump were dismissed when Mr. Trump won the US presidential election in 2024.

Mr. Jack Smith in Washington DC, USA on June 9, 2023

Mr. Smith’s resignation from the Justice Department was widely expected. Mr. Trump, who often called Mr. Smith a “lunatic,” had said he would fire him as soon as he took office on January 20, and had hinted that he might retaliate against Mr. Smith and others who investigated him after he returned to the White House, according to Reuters.

At issue now is the fate of a two-volume report that Mr. Smith and his team prepared for their parallel investigations into Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving the White House in January 2021, according to the AP.

The Justice Department had expected to release the documents in the final days of President Joe Biden's administration, but the Trump-appointed judge presiding over the classified documents case has granted the defense's request to at least temporarily halt their release.

Two of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, including his assistant Walt Nauta and Mr. Carlos De Oliveira, manager of Mar-a-Lago, argued that the report’s release was unfairly biased.

The Justice Department responded that it would not release the classified documents while criminal proceedings against Nauta and De Oliveira were pending. Although federal judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in July 2024, an appeal by Smith’s team of that decision regarding Nauta and De Oliveira is still pending.

Prosecutors, however, say they intend to proceed with the release of the election interference documents.

In an emergency motion late on January 10, prosecutors asked the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to quickly lift Judge Cannon’s injunction that had barred them from releasing any part of the report. Prosecutors privately told Judge Cannon on January 11 that she did not have the authority to block the report’s release, but she responded with an order directing prosecutors to file a further brief by January 12.

The appeals court on Friday night rejected an emergency attempt to block the release of the election interference report, which details Trump’s efforts before the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, to overturn the results of the 2020 election. However, the court upheld Judge Cannon’s order that no findings be released until three days after the appeals court resolves the matter.

The US Justice Department told the appeals court in its emergency motion that Judge Cannon's order was "clearly erroneous".

"The Attorney General is the head of the Department of Justice, confirmed by the Senate, and is empowered to supervise all officers and employees of the Department. Therefore, the Attorney General has the authority to decide whether to release investigative reports prepared by his subordinates," the US Department of Justice emphasized.

Justice Department regulations require special counsels to produce reports at the end of their work, and such documents are typically made public regardless of the subject matter, according to the AP.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cong-to-vien-dac-biet-tu-chuc-sau-khi-nop-bao-cao-dieu-tra-ve-ong-trump-185250112065719073.htm