Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Jack Smith, the special prosecutor pursuing two federal cases against Donald Trump, intends to step down before Trump takes office next January, according to the NYT, and has told members of his team they can start planning their departures. Smith was leading two cases against the president-elect: conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and a Florida case related to mishandling classified documents. Trump’s election last week effectively ended the criminal cases against him – Justice Department policy is that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted. In the end, the only one of four cases to go to trial was a New York hush money prosecution in which a jury found Trump guilty on 30 May (his lawyers will try to delay sentencing now that he is the president-elect). A Georgia state case on the 2020 election is also unlikely to go to trial while Trump is in office. Last month he would fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking power. Smith aims to submit a report on his investigations; the main question now is whether it will be made public before 20 January.
