The Justice Department is reportedly trying to “wind down” the federal criminal cases against President-Elect Donald Trump before he returns to the White House.
DOJ officials are considering ways to fizzle out the two federal criminal cases that Trump faces — one involving his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the other related to improperly storing a trove of classified documents — in order to comply with its long-standing policy not to prosecute sitting presidents, sources told NBC News and USA Today.
The policy states: “The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.”
It’s not immediately clear whether the cases would be dropped or put on hold during Trump’s second term. The Justice Department declined to comment on the allegations.
Eric Columbus, who represented the House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, suggested that the cases could be paused. He wrote on X: “Clearly a sitting president can’t be prosecuted. But that doesn’t mean this DOJ need [to] dismiss the Trump cases rather than just putting them on hold. Of course, the Trump DOJ would dismiss the cases. But don’t do it for them.”
But Chuck Rosenberg, a former federal prosecutor and NBC News contributor, told the outlet that he wasn’t surprised by the claims, saying that winding down the cases was “sensible, inevitable and unfortunate.”
The cases led by Special Counsel Jack Smith would not be brought to trial before Trump returns to the White House in January.
Aileen Cannon, the judge in the classified documents dismissed the case in July, prompting Smith to try to appeal the move. Last month, a document revealed that Cannon was on the shortlist for top law enforcement positions in a second Trump administration.
Trump spokesperson Steven Chung told the outlets in a statement: “It is now abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, so we can, as President Trump said in his historic speech last night, unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation.”
The President-Elect still faces state-level cases.
He is scheduled to be sentenced after the conviction in his so-called hush money case in New York criminal case on November 26. On Tuesday, Trump became the first convicted felon to ever be elected president.
He also faces criminal charges in a 2020 election interference case in the state of Georgia.
