An appeals court on Tuesday accepted prosecutors’ request to drop the case against US President-elect Donald Trump over the misuse of classified documents.
Special counsel Jack Smith had asked the court on Monday to dismiss the case because of the Justice Department’s long-standing policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
A Trump-appointed district court judge in Florida dismissed the documents case earlier this year, but Smith has appealed the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeals court granted Smith’s request to dismiss the case without comment.
However, Smith is moving to pursue the case against two of Trump’s co-defendants, his valet, Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira.
Trump, 78, was accused of removing large amounts of top secret documents and obstructing efforts to recover them after leaving the White House at the end of his first term.
The former president was also accused by the special counsel of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden. On Monday, a judge granted Smith’s request to drop that case.
The special counsel halted both federal cases this month after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 presidential election.
The former and incoming president also faces two state cases – in New York and Georgia.
He was convicted in New York in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels from disclosing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter on the eve of the 2016 election. Was.
Judge Juan Merchan has postponed sentencing while he considers a request from Trump’s lawyers to vacate the conviction in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in July that a former president enjoys broad immunity from prosecution. .
In Georgia, Trump is facing fraud charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state, but the case will likely be put to rest while he remains in office.
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