November 25, (THEWILL) – Special Counsel Jack Smith, on Monday, prayed District Judge, Tanya Chutkan, to dismiss the election subversion case against US President-elect, Donald Trump, following a court filing to drop the charges.
Trump had been accused of alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden.
Special Prosecutor had filed a two-count criminal Charge, accusing Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding of the session of Congress called to certify Biden’s win, which was violently attacked on January 6, 2021, by a mob of the then-president’s supporters. Trump was further accused of seeking to disenfranchise US voters with his false claims that he won the 2020 election.
Trump had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In a filing on Monday, before Judge Chutkan in Washington, Smith, who is overseeing the case, filed an application to drop the charges in light of a long-standing Justice Department policy not to prosecute a sitting president.
“The Government’s position on the merits of the defendant’s prosecution has not changed. But the circumstances have. It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President.
“As a result, this prosecution must be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated”, Smith said in the filing.
Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, welcomed the move to dismiss the case, calling it a “major victory for the rule of law”.
“The American People and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponisation of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country”, Cheung said in a statement.
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