A federal judge in Washington dismissed the election-related criminal case against Donald Trump after special counsel Jack Smith asked the court to end the prosecution before the president-elect’s inauguration.
The CBS News report says U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted Smith’s request to toss out the charges in the case stemming from the 2020 election. The move followed Smith’s filing that the Justice Department’s position required dismissal because federal policy bars the prosecution of a sitting president. Smith said the constitutional prohibition was categorical and did not depend on the seriousness of the accusations or the strength of the evidence.
According to the evidence, Smith had consulted with the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and with Attorney General Merrick Garland before moving to dismiss the case. He also said Trump’s lawyers did not object to the request. The dismissal was sought without prejudice, leaving open the possibility of future prosecution once Trump leaves office.
Chutkan said in a brief opinion that dismissing the case without prejudice was appropriate because the immunity that applies to a sitting president is temporary. The report says that judgment effectively ends the historic federal prosecution brought over Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, at least for the duration of his next term.
The broader legal context is important. Smith had taken over two federal investigations into Trump: one tied to the 2020 election and another concerning classified records. The election case had already traveled through repeated legal fights over presidential immunity, with the Supreme Court later holding that presidents are immune from federal prosecution for official acts. The report says Smith later filed a superseding indictment to align the charges with that ruling.
The filing that prompted dismissal also revived the factual record prosecutors had assembled. Smith’s team said Trump, after losing the 2020 race, “resorted to crimes” to try to stay in power, and the filing described efforts to challenge the election result before Election Day and pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject electoral votes on January 6, 2021. Those allegations were part of the case that Chutkan dismissed.
Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, called the decision a major victory and said the American people had re-elected Trump with a mandate. The report says the judge’s action was expected once Smith moved to end the case. Smith is also expected to submit a final report and step down before Trump is sworn in.
The case’s procedural end is significant even though it does not resolve the underlying allegations on their merits. Instead, it shows how a Justice Department policy about sitting presidents collided with a prosecution that had already become one of the most consequential in modern U.S. politics.
