The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith to drop President-elect Donald Trump’s Florida case, ending the battle to charge him over retaining records with classified markings after leaving office.
The fight to prosecute President-elect Donald Trump for allegedly keeping records with classified markings after leaving office came to an end on Tuesday when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted special counsel Jack Smith’s request to dismiss the case involving the Florida documents.
Although the case will still go forward for Trump’s two co-defendants, valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, the order satisfies Smith’s request to terminate an appeal in the case as it concerns Trump.
In both cases, Smith cited Trump’s upcoming inauguration and Department of Justice guidelines that prohibit the prosecution of sitting presidents. Smith also moved to dismiss Trump’s election meddling case without prejudice.
Smith was contesting Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss the case in the classified materials case, which found that the special counsel had been appointed illegally.
Liberals clung to hope that the appeal would be successful, claiming that Judge Cannon’s decision counters 50 years of prior rulings regarding special counsel regulations, and the court has previously reversed one of her decisions.
“Nonetheless, it brings to an end for Trump a serious case focused largely on his conduct after leaving the White House. It was potentially the stronger of Smith’s two cases after a Supreme Court ruling that determined former presidents retain broad immunity for their conduct while in office. Prosecutors brought both Espionage Act and obstruction of justice charges against Trump after he repeatedly refused requests to return White House records, including defying a subpoena,” The Hill reported
Trump reportedly has a plan in place to fire the entire team of Jack Smith, including the prosecutor himself, and investigate the results of the previous election in which he was defeated by President Joe Biden.
The president-elect plans to even get rid of the career attorneys who are typically protected from political retribution, The Washington Post reported
Trump “wants to clean out ‘the bad guys, the people who went after me,’” a source close to the president-elect said.
The special prosecutor’s team consists of dozens of attorneys, FBI agents, and staff who were likely assigned to the cases and did not choose to be on his team, the report said.
