Special counsel moves to drop federal cases against Trump

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00:00Well, the latest from the Justice Department filing is that the Jack Smith special counsel

00:06investigation is filing to drop all federal charges against Donald Trump now.

00:11So that includes not only the election subversion case, but also the mishandling of classified

00:18documents case in Mar-a-Lago as well.

00:21We are told in the six page ruling that we got out of the D.C. court, which was overlooking

00:26the election subversion case, that was cited the constitution's prohibition on federal

00:33indictments and prosecution of a sitting president.

00:36It was a six page filing here in D.C. which has instructed Tanya Shukin, the judge overseeing

00:42this case, who of course was currently working to go over the Supreme Court's recent ruling

00:48on presidential immunity and how that would impact the case that was being standed against

00:53Donald Trump.

00:54Well, in this new filing, the Justice Department is effectively saying that that work can stop

00:58now because they are effectively stopping the case going forward and they've conferred

01:04with Donald Trump's lawyers who have not had any issue with that motion as well.

01:08So in that six page filing, it says the department's position is that the constitution requires

01:13that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated.

01:17They do, however, say that they stand by the charges that are inside of those, inside that

01:23indictment and the work that they have been going through.

01:27So what happens next then will be that if this motion is adopted, which it's widely

01:33expected it will be, then the case will be dismissed against Donald Trump and then Jack

01:40Smith, the special counsel, will release a report to the attorney general, Merrick Garland,

01:46and that is in line with standard practice with most, well, all actual special counsel

01:51investigations.

01:52That report will likely be made public, we're told, and it's understood that that report

01:57will not include any new information beyond what is already publicly available.

02:02And then after that report has been submitted to the Justice Department, then Jack Smith,

02:07the special counsel, will resign that after Donald Trump threatened to fire him in any

02:12case.

02:13So that's expected all to happen before Joe Biden leaves office on the 20th of January

02:18next year.

02:19Indeed.

02:20It is a strange world when a legal case is suddenly dismissed like it is, but you've

02:25outlined the context and obviously there are reasons constitutionally why this is happening.

02:30But it sounds like you're saying that the people who brought the case, the legal process

02:34that brought the case, doesn't doubt that it was right to do so.

02:38No, they, Jack Smith and the special counsel, in his ruling, in the six-page finding that

02:47they've given to the judge, outlines that they believe that what the Justice Department

02:51has laid out against Donald Trump and the facts and the evidence that they have submitted

02:56all stand up to scrutiny.

02:58And they say that their findings, they do stand by, but that it is more of a legal question

03:04rather than anything else as to why this case should no longer go forward.

03:09We will be seeing the full reports coming from Jack Smith in the weeks to come.

03:16He'll be able to pore over that and go into a bit more of what the Justice Department

03:21was levying against Donald Trump.

03:22Again, there aren't any kind of blockbuster items that are expected to jump out of this

03:28report.

03:29We did find out some recent information in a finding from Tanya Shook and the judge overseeing

03:34the case just a couple of weeks ago.

03:36That is when the information about Donald Trump allegedly saying, so what, when he was

03:41told that the people at the Capitol on January 6th wanted to hang his vice president, Mike

03:46Pence, that information came out alive from that ruling from Tanya Shook.

03:51But nothing major expected to come out.

03:53But of course, that could change if Jack Smith is subpoenaed by Congress, which is more than

03:59possible of happening, considering that the Republicans in the next Congress will be in

04:04charge of the House and the Senate as well.

04:06It's very possible that he could be subpoenaed to testify before Congress.

04:10And during those testimonies, we could get more details about the case that the prosecution

04:15had against Donald Trump.

04:17But at the moment, nothing new expected to come out.

04:19Don't want me to sound dramatic here, Fraser, but it's looking like, and this is possibly

04:24how Trump's supporters might interpret this, that he is above the law, very much king of

04:28the hill.

04:29He can do what he wants.

04:30Well, of course, under the United States Constitution, no man is above the law, or woman for that

04:38matter.

04:40But there was a ruling that came out of this legal battle between Donald Trump and the

04:47Justice Department, which actually resulted in a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court,

04:51which effectively impacted how a president is seen in the eyes of the law.

04:57They said that the president would receive some immunity for criminal acts which were

05:02carried out in an official capacity, which a lot of analysts and a lot of legal experts

05:09said effectively did put a president above the law, meaning that they could effectively

05:13do whatever they wanted as long as it was within the scope of their office.

05:18Now, of course, during the back and forth over this question, at one point it was raised

05:24by one of the judges in DC as to whether that included the killing of a political opponent,

05:29for example, and whether the president could use Seen Till Six to assassinate a political

05:35rival.

05:36And Donald Trump's legal counsel argued that that would be possible, and the Supreme Court

05:41effectively went along with that.

05:43Now, of course, that has been a very worst case scenario, a very dramatic example.

05:48But in theory, this is the kind of scope that the Supreme Court ruled that a president now

05:53has.

05:54And he has vowed revenge over many, many people in many, many ways.

05:58We're not just discussing this academically.

06:00It looks like it's a process in some shape or form that is starting.

06:04Fraser, thank you very much indeed.

06:06Pleasure to speak to you.

06:07Fraser Jackson, watching all developments for us from Washington, DC.

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