What to remember from Donald Trump's victories against special adviser Jack Smith

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Even before special prosecutor Jack Smith formally requested that the criminal charges against Donald Trump be dismissed, it was already guaranteed that the president-elect would never face a jury.

Smith on Monday dropped both 2020 election subversion charges against Trump and charges accusing Trump of mishandling classified documents.

The special counsel emphasized that his decision was not about the strength of his case against Trump, but that his reasoning was based on the Justice Department's long-held belief that the Constitution prohibits prosecutions of sitting presidents.

Although prosecutors believed they could have kept the cases on life support during Trump's second presidency, the president-elect had already indicated he planned to fire Smith and his team, a vow that violated the usual norms surrounding an investigation of a special advocate. .

Trump's re-election this month was the straw that broke the camel's back that had buckled in the face of slow-moving courts and new legal arguments. Smith's filings suggest he could bring the charges again, although Trump could seek to rule out that possibility by apologizing for an unprecedented decision.

Republicans' promise to go after those who sued him, a vow echoed by his pick for attorney general, also threatens Trump's second term.

Here are the takeaways from Smith's decision to dismiss the case and how his lawsuit got to this point:

Trump's Election Promises and Retaliation Made This Day Inevitable

Trump's re-election earlier this month brought a quick end to his federal criminal cases.

The former president pledged during his campaign to fire Smith if voters returned him to the White House, a move at odds with how other presidents have treated special counsels.

Oh, it's so easy. It's so easy, Trump said in October when asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt whether he would pardon himself or fire Jack Smith if he were re-elected. I would fire him in two seconds.

In the end, however, Trump did not need to fire the special counsel to end both affairs. He already benefited from a delaying legal strategy that ensured no trial was opened before Election Day, which ultimately forced Smith's hand.

Days after Trump's re-election, the special prosecutor asked the judge overseeing the D.C. case to suspend deadlines in that case so his team could evaluate how to move forward with the unprecedented prosecution. Nearly three weeks after Election Day, he submitted his cases to courts in Washington DC and Florida.

The president-elect, meanwhile, has repeatedly vowed to seek political retaliation against Smith and others who he says have unfairly pursued him during his four years out of office. His pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, appears poised to be a loyal foot soldier in these efforts.

The Justice Department, prosecutors will go after the bad guys, Bondi, who for a time served as Florida's attorney general, said in an August 2023 television appearance.

Investigators will be investigated. Because the Deep State, President Trump's final term, was hiding in the shadows. But now the spotlight is on them and they can all be investigated, she added.

Before Trump is sworn in next year, Smith plans to release a final report, as required by law, on his investigations into Trump, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Attorney General Merrick Garland should make it public, as he has with previous special counsel reports.

But it's unclear how much new information would be included, particularly in the election subversion case, where Smith recently filed hundreds of pages of legal arguments and evidence gathered for that suit.

If part of what happened was that Smith simply ran out of time to pursue the case against Trump, then the Supreme Court's six-justice conservative majority had a key role to play in slowing things down.

The high court granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions in a highly anticipated 6-3 ruling in July, limiting the ability of special counsels to move forward. Some Trump critics criticized the ruling itself, but others faulted the court for the time it took to issue it.

It was clear that several conservative judges saw the decision not as a gift to Trump, but as a way to avoid a spiral of potentially politically motivated lawsuits. While the court's ruling may ultimately achieve that goal, it is also widely seen as removing any oversight over presidents.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, wrote that Congress cannot criminalize a president's conduct when exercising the responsibilities of the executive branch. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, warned, dissenting, that the ruling would place future presidents as kings above the law.

The Supreme Court initially rejected Smith's efforts to resolve the immunity issues in December, allowing the normal process to play out with a federal appeals court stepping in first. Two months later, in mid-February, after the appeals court ruled in Smith's favor, it was Trump who asked the justices to reconsider the issue of presidential immunity.

The court upheld the case in February but did not hear arguments until late April. He made his decision on the last day of his mandate, July 1. And the case was finally sent back to the Washington DC District Court in August.

The election subversion case was always expected to be the subject of several years of litigation because of the questions it raised about the criminalization of acts committed by a sitting president.

But the case in which Trump was accused of mishandling national defense information was seen as a much simpler prosecution because it focused on Trump's conduct after the presidency and dealt with an area well-established law.

Trump, however, hit the jackpot by handing this case over to Judge Aileen Cannon, one of his appointees with little trial experience and who had already treated the investigation with remarkable hostility when she oversaw the pre-indictment lawsuit Trump filed to challenge the FBI's search of him. Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Cannon threw a number of wrenches in the prosecutor's case before dismissing it entirely this summer on the grounds that Smith was illegally appointed. His handling of the charges was widely criticized by legal experts, and his dismissal decision was expected to be reviewed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals until those deadlines were postponed with Trump's victory.

Notably, Smith is not ending the Justice Department's prosecution of the two Trump employees, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were accused of allegedly aiding their boss in his efforts to obstruct the federal investigation.

What to do next in this case will be a question for Trump's new Justice Department. Even though Trump may want the charges against his allies dropped, the DOJ will have to balance that with an institutional desire to clear the books of a dismissal decision that could jeopardize the special counsel's investigations. 'future.

In both of his cases against Trump, Smith said he was dropping the charges against the president-elect without prejudice, which in theory would leave the door open for new charges in the future. While emphasizing the immunity Trump was set to receive upon re-entering the White House, Smith repeatedly said she characterized the immunity as temporary.

Smith's deposition in the Washington, D.C., election subversion case included a longer discussion about how he arrived at the decision to drop that case, where he had to weigh the DOJ's long-standing position barring prosecution of the sitting president in relation to the principle that no man is above the law.

Smith said he had consulted with DOJ lawyers on the matter, and they also considered the possibility of putting the case on hold until Trump no longer enjoys the presidential immunity that protects him. Ultimately, however, the department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that prohibitions on prosecuting sitting presidents are categorical, including for indictments issued before a defendant took office, said Smith.

Smith's decision on Monday will likely draw attention and perhaps criticism to the Justice Department's views, which have not yet been directly tested in courts.

Smith's firing records end a chapter for criminal lawyers who have mostly managed to avoid criminal charges against Trump. But a new chapter has already opened for several members of Trump's legal team who have already been rewarded with top positions in his new administration.

Todd Blanche, who played a central role in the Washington prosecutions and other Trump cases, was tapped by Trump for the DOJ's No. 2 role, deputy attorney general.

John Sauer, who argued the immunity dispute on Trump's behalf before the Supreme Court, was Trump's pick to be U.S. solicitor general, the federal government's top lawyer before the high court. Both positions are subject to Senate confirmation.

Additionally, Trump announced that another member of his personal legal team, Emile Bové, would serve as acting assistant attorney general while Blanche awaits confirmation, then move to senior associate assistant attorney general, a position that is not submitted to the Senate.

CNN's Paula Reid contributed to this report.

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