Washington The historic and unprecedented case against the nation’s former and future president came to a close on Tuesday when a federal appeals court granted special counsel Jack Smith’s request to end the case against President-elect Donald Trump due to his alleged mishandling of sensitive government documents.

In a brief ruling, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted Smith’s request to have the case against Trump dismissed.

Citing Trump’s recent victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election and longstanding Justice Department policy that forbids prosecuting a sitting president, the special counsel asked the Atlanta-based court on Monday to reject his attempts to relaunch the case.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is considering Trump’s case, declared that the charges should be withdrawn due to Smith’s arbitrary appointment. In his appeal, the special counsel asked the 11th Circuit to overturn the decision.

President Trump was re-elected by the American people with the explicit goal of restoring America’s greatness. Today’s DOJ ruling is a significant win for the rule of law and puts a stop to the illegal federal cases against President Trump.

In response to Smith’s request, Steven Cheung, the spokesperson for Trump, stated. President Trump and the American people want to bring our nation together and put an immediate stop to the political weaponization of our legal system.

Smith mentioned a different move to have his other Trump complaint—which concerns a purported conspiracy to rig the 2020 election—dismissed in his brief filing with the 11th Circuit. In a document submitted to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., the special counsel said,

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has been consulted, and the department has determined that the Constitution mandates that this matter be dismissed prior to the defendant’s inauguration.

The months-long prosecution of the president-elect came to an end when the federal judge handling the 2020 election case agreed to drop the charges against Trump, just hours after Smith submitted his request. The lower court’s decision to reject the charges against Trump is upheld in the papers case by rejecting his appeal.

Smith decided that, in contrast to the president-elect, Trump’s two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, are not covered by the principle of temporary immunity, thus the appeal will move forward against them.

Unsurprisingly, the special counsel’s choice to continue with this case despite dismissing it against President Trump is a testament to the bad judgment that resulted in the indictment against Mr.

John Irving, de Oliveira’s defense lawyer, stated in the first place that “just because you can does not imply you should.” We have nothing against them requesting a postponed acquittal.

Nauta’s attorney chose not to comment. Trump became the first former president to be charged with a federal crime when a grand jury returned an indictment against him in June 2023.

The prosecution came months after FBI investigators retrieved over 100 secret documents that Trump had kept after his first term ended in January 2021 during a court-authorized search of his Mar-a-Lago home in South Florida in August 2022.

After the search, Trump filed a second lawsuit, which led to the appointment of an impartial arbiter to review the FBI’s data. However, in late 2022, the 11th Circuit ordered that the investigation be halted.

Smith filed charges against the president-elect for unlawfully keeping national defense information and trying to thwart the Justice Department’s investigation after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him in November of that year to lead the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified government documents.

Trump was charged with two employees of Mar-a-Lago, including the property manager, de Oliveira, and an aide named Nauta.

On all counts, Trump, Nauta, and de Oliveira entered not guilty pleas. His indictment, according to the president-elect, was politically motivated and meant to thwart his bid for a second term.

Using court documents, prosecutors revealed how Trump and his co-defendants allegedly colluded to mislead federal investigators and obstruct their probe, as well as how he allegedly stored documents containing national secrets on his property.

They included pictures of material crates piled in a toilet on the property and on the stage of Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom. Additional images taken by the FBI during its investigation in August 2022 reveal boxes of documents in a storage area within Trump’s office, including personal mementos and other presidential artifacts, some of which prosecutors say included extremely sensitive material.

The trial was supposed to start on May 20, 2024, but Cannon delayed it by a few weeks. On a number of grounds, including that he was singled out for prosecution, that he was shielded from federal prosecution by presidential immunity, and that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional, the president-elect and his attorneys attempted to have the case against him dismissed.

In July, Cannon ordered the lawsuit to be dropped after Trump convinced her that the special counsel’s appointment and the funding for his office were unlawful.

Smith, however, filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit over the decision. Although there was no set date for arguments, he and Trump’s attorneys also submitted briefs to the court outlining their thoughts on Cannon’s ruling. It was anticipated that the Supreme Court would eventually hear the decision from the 11th Circuit.

One of the two complaints Smith filed against Trump concerned paperwork. He was charged in Washington with attempting to obstruct the handover of power after the 2020 presidential election. After the president-elect entered a not guilty plea to the four charges against him, the matter proceeded to the Supreme Court, where Trump argued that he was immune from prosecution due to presidential immunity.

He was charged by local prosecutors in two different cases in New York City and Fulton County, Georgia. Trump became the first past president to be convicted of a crime in May after a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies in the New York case, which involved a hush-money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels after the 2016 election.

Last month, his sentencing in New York was scheduled, but it was postponed.

Trump’s alleged scheme to tamper with Georgia’s 2020 election results was at the center of the Fulton County case. In response to District Attorney Fani Willis’s charges of racketeering, he entered a not guilty plea. But while a state appeal court determined whether Willis should be removed from the case, the proceedings had been halted. It’s unclear how Trump’s election will affect his prosecution in Fulton County.

Since it was generally believed that Trump’s federal cases would be dropped if he were elected president, his reelection campaign cast a shadow over his prosecutions.

Smith has now tried to stop the historic prosecutions of the president-elect and the former president.

According to two people familiar with Smith’s preparations, Smith is expected to provide a final report to the attorney general as required by special counsel regulations after both cases have been resolved. He will also step down from his position prior to Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

As he has so far fulfilled his pledge to make every special counsel reports finished during his term publicly available, Garland is anticipated to follow through on this promise with Smith’s report. After submitting their reports, previous special counsels have addressed Congress, and Smith may follow suit.

Smith’s findings have very little chance of being published if they are postponed during the Trump administration. This is because the president-elect has indicated that he intends to appoint many of his best defense lawyers to senior roles in the Justice Department.

Emil Bove and Todd Blanche, who represented Trump in New York and two federal lawsuits, are anticipated to take important roles in the Justice Department as principal associate deputy attorney general and deputy attorney general, respectively.

According to Trump, he would appoint Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, to the top attorney general post.

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