Jack Smith Plans to Release Report Before Donald Trump is Sworn In: CNN
Published Nov 26, 2024 at 12:00 PM
Special counsel Jack Smith plans to release his final report on the federal investigations into former President Donald Trump before Inauguration Day on January 20, according to a CNN report citing a source close to the matter.
The report is expected to detail Smith's findings on key cases involving Trump, including allegations of election subversion and mishandling of classified documents. Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to publicly release the special counsel report.
"Historically, these special counsel reports are quite detailed," CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said Tuesday morning in an interview with Jim Acosta. " I think this will be Jack Smith's last and best chance to tell his story in both cases. He's already done that to some extent through his indictments and court filings, but this will be it — this will be the historical record."
On Monday, Smith filed to drop all four felony chargesrelated to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed all charges against Trump in his election fraud case later on Monday.
Smith also moved to dismiss the case regarding Trump's handling of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left office in January 2021.
"These cases were dismissed without prejudice, which technically leaves the door open for future prosecution," Honig explained Tuesday. The analyst also likened the possibility of reviving the cases to the lowly "New York Jets making it to the Super Bowl."
"They're not mathematically eliminated, but it's not going to happen. Four years is an eternity in politics, and whoever the next president or attorney general is in 2029 will have no appetite for reviving these cases," he said.
Smith's comprehensive final report is anticipated to serve as both a conclusive document of the investigations and a reference for possible future actions. However, it remains uncertain how much new information will be included, particularly in the election subversion case.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice for comment on Tuesday.
The dismissal of these federal cases marks a turning point in Trump's legal saga. The weight of prosecution has now shifted squarely onto state-level cases, where the stakes remain high. Unlike federal cases, state prosecutions are not bound by Department of Justicepolicies, which prohibit the indictment of a sitting president.
While the president-elect secured two major wins, the courtroom battles are far from over. Trump still faces legal hurdles in New York and Georgia.
One of them, a New York case involving hush money payments, resulted in a conviction on felony charges of falsifying business records. It was the first time a former president had been found guilty of a crime.
On Friday, Judge Juan Merchan indefinitely postponed sentencing, initially rescheduled for the week after the election. No new sentencing date has been set, but Merchan granted Trump's legal team until December 2 to file arguments for dismissal based on his election victory. Prosecutors have one week to respond.
Trump was also indicted in Georgia along with 18 others accused of participating in a sprawling scheme to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election there. However, any trial appears unlikely there while Trump holds office.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump posted in part on Monday: "These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought. Over $100 Million Dollars of Taxpayer Dollars has been wasted in the Democrat Party's fight against their Political Opponent, ME. Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before."
Trump then went on to call out Fulton County (Georgia) District Attorney Fani Willis, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for their cases against him.
Concluding, Trump said, "It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds, and WON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
https://www.newsweek.com/jack-smith-deadline-final-donald-trump-report-1991904