(Reuters) – US Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading federal charges against Donald Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandling classified documents , resigned, as the Republican president-elect prepares to return to the White House .

Smith resigned Friday from the Department of Justice, according to a court filing Saturday with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who asked her to withdraw a court order she issued blocking the release. in his final report.

Smith’s resignation announcement came in a footnote to the filing, which said the Special Counsel had completed his work, submitted his final confidential report on Jan. 7, and “separated” from Justice Department on January 10.

A former war crimes prosecutor, Smith brought two of the four criminal charges Trump faced after leaving office, but saw them stalled after a Trump-appointed judge in Florida dismissed one and the US Supreme Court — with three justices appointed by Trump — found that former presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for official acts. Not a single case was brought to trial.

After Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, Smith dropped both cases, citing a longstanding Justice Department rule against prosecuting sitting presidents. In asking the courts to dismiss the charges, Smith’s team defended the merits of the cases they brought, only signaling that Trump’s imminent return to the White House made them untenable.

Smith’s departure is another sign of the collapse of the criminal charges against Trump, which could end without any legal consequences for the future president and sparked a backlash that helped his return to politics.

Smith’s resignation from the Justice Department is expected. Trump, who has often called Smith “deranged”, said he would immediately remove him from office on January 20, and suggested he could pursue retaliation against Smith and others who investigated him once he will return to office.

Trump in 2023 became the first sitting or former US president to face criminal prosecution, first in New York, where he was accused of trying to hide a hush-hush payment to a porn star during his campaign. of the presidency in 2016. Smith’s indictments followed, accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified material after he left office and trying to dismiss his absence in 2020, a campaign that sparked the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Prosecutors in Georgia have also indicted Trump for his efforts to reverse his election loss in that state.

TRUMP ADMITTED TO POLITICAL MOTIVATION

Trump has denied wrongdoing and attacked the prosecutions as politically motivated attempts to undermine his campaign. He has collected millions in campaign contributions from court appearances and used the cases to push a powerful narrative that the political establishment is stacked against him and his supporters.

The Justice Department has defended the charges, saying they were run by career prosecutors acting without political influence.

Garland appointed Smith in November 2022 — nearly two years after the Capitol attack — to lead the Justice Department’s twin ongoing investigations into Trump. That move comes just days after Trump announced a campaign to return to the White House in the 2024 election.

Garland, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, said Smith would provide a degree of independence in highly sensitive investigations. Garland has rebuffed earlier calls to name a special prosecutor, insisting he could handle investigations of Trump.

Smith returned to Washington from The Hague where he prosecuted war crimes cases arising from the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. He previously headed the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department and worked in the federal prosecutor’s office in Brooklyn, New York, developing a reputation as a strong investigator.

In the Hague, Smith won the conviction of Salih Mustafa, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army who ran a prison where torture took place during the conflict.

HISTORICAL FIRST

The indictments, the first federal charges against a former US president, accuse Trump of taking highly sensitive national security documents at his Florida resort and using false information. -confess to voter fraud to try to remove the collection and certification of votes after his loss in the 2020 election.

“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented attack on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies – lies by the defendant, which aimed at obstructing the basic function of the US government,” Smith said in announcing the indictment in the August 2023 election, one of only two public appearances he has made on his investigation.

Smith faces a tight window to complete both prosecutions because it is clear that Trump could close them if he wins the election. Both face legal hurdles.

In the classified documents case, Florida-based US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, dismissed all charges in July after ruling that Smith was improperly appointed as special counsel.

Smith’s office appealed the decision. Prosecutors dropped the Trump-related appeal after his election victory, but signaled they would continue in a bid to revive charges against two Trump associates accused of obstructing the investigation.

The election case has been on hold for months while Trump’s lawyers appeal for presidential immunity. The US Supreme Court largely sided with Trump in August, ruling that Trump cannot be impeached for many of his official acts as president and causing several delays in the case.

Smith acknowledged in court papers that his team faced an “unprecedented situation” after Trump won the election against Democrat Kamala Harris. His office concluded that both cases could not be pursued.

Trump was convicted of falsifying business records after a trial in a hush money case in New York, brought by state prosecutors. His sentencing was delayed indefinitely after his election victory and Trump’s lawyers sought to have it thrown out entirely.

The Georgia case, which also includes charges against 14 Trump allies, remains in limbo while an appeals court determines whether the lead prosecutor, Fani Willis, should be disqualified for misconduct in a romantic relationship with a former top representative. The case against Trump is unlikely to continue as long as he remains president.