(The Hill) — Special counsel Jack Smith plans to wrap up his work and resign from his post before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in.
Trump has boasted that he plans to fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office and has also made other threatening remarks about the special counsel, including that he should be arrested.
The New York Times first reported the development.
Smith on Friday asked for a suspension of deadlines in his election interference case against Trump, noting both the unprecedented nature of a president entering office while facing charges as well as a Justice Department (DOJ) memo barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
The government needs “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy,” the department wrote.
The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel advises against the criminal prosecution of a sitting president, concluding in 1973 that “criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.”
Smith’s office declined to comment.
The Times reported that other members of Smith’s team are likewise planning to resign.
Smith has a number of avenues for how he can wind down his work, including issuing a report summarizing his investigations. Special counsels submit their report to the attorney general, who in turn must decide whether to release it to the public.
“I think he knows it is inevitable that Donald Trump will pull the plug on the case, and so I think he wants to explore ways to end the case on his own terms, rather than wait for that to happen,” Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney under the Obama administration, previously told The Hill.
“I imagine that he is now going to hustle to get that done before the end of this administration so that [Attorney General] Merrick Garland can share that with the public. … And even though it seems likely that both cases will be dismissed and never go to trial, at least there will be a historic record of what happened.”