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Special counsel Jack Smith resigns as fight to block Trump report continues

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U.S. special counsel Mr. Jack Smith has resigned from the Justice Department after submitting his investigative report on president-elect Donald Trump, an expected move that comes amid legal face-off over how much of that document can be made public in the days ahead.

Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor, was appointed in November 2022 to take charge of investigations into Trump’s alleged mishandling of confidential documents after his presidency and his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The department disclosed Smith’s departure in a court filing Saturday, revealing he had resigned one day earlier.

The resignation, 10 days before Trump is inaugurated, follows the conclusion of two unsuccessful criminal prosecutions against Trump that were withdrawn following his White House win in November.

Smith and his legal team moved to struck out the charges, citing a Justice Department rule that bars the prosecution of incumbent presidents.

Despite acknowledging the validity of the charges, Smith’s team confirmed they could not pursue them given Trump’s imminent return to office.

This decision effectively collapses the legal cases against Trump, paving way for him to take office without facing legal consequences.

Trump had previously indicated plans to remove Smith upon taking over the baton of leadership for a second term

Currently, the fate of a two-volume report that Smith and his team had prepared about their twin investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of his 2020 election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, remains uncertain.

The Justice Department had been expected to make the document public in the final days of the Biden administration, but the Trump-appointed judge who presided over the classified documents case granted a defence request to at least temporarily halt its release.

Two of Trump’s co-defendants in that case, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, had argued that the release of the report would be unfairly prejudicial, an argument that the Trump legal team joined in.