Special counsel's last criminal case against Trump dismissed

A US court has dismissed the last remaining federal criminal case against Donald Trump, which alleged that the president-elect illegally retained classified documents.

The appeals court approved a dismissal request from Special Prosecutor Jack Smith on Tuesday.

Earlier, on Monday, a separate case alleging that Trump illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election was also dismissed.

Smith, who was appointed by attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate Trump, said in court filings that he requested the dismissals because the Justice Department is banned from prosecuting a sitting president, and not because of anything having to do with the substance of the cases.

The cases were dismissed "without prejudice", meaning charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term as president.

In his request to drop the election case, Smith wrote: "This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant."

Trump had pleaded not guilty in both cases.

After leaving office, Trump crossed into unprecedented legal territory for a former president, becoming the first to face a criminal trial and later conviction, in a case tied to a payment made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

At the beginning of the year, he faced nearly 100 criminal charges connected to the two federal cases and others.

The Supreme Court ruled this summer that a former president could not be prosecuted for "official acts" taken while in office, and Trump went on to win the election a few months later. Now almost all those charges have been dropped, with a case brought by prosecutors in Georgia currently on pause.

Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social that the federal cases were "empty and lawless, and should never have been brought".

"It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds," he wrote.

Vice-President-elect JD Vance said the prosecutions were "always political".

"If Donald J. Trump had lost an election, he may very well have spent the rest of his life in prison," he wrote.

Trump has pledged to sack Smith as soon as he takes office in January. Smith has reportedly said he plans to step down next year.

The dismissal of the cases marks an end to a lengthy legal saga.

Smith had to refile the election-subversion charges against the former president based on the Supreme Court ruling that Trump was immune from some prosecution.

The special counsel had argued in a revised indictment that Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were related to his campaign and therefore not official acts.

In the classified documents case, Trump was accused of storing dozens of sensitive files in his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, dismissed the charges after ruling Smith was improperly appointed to lead the case.

Smith, however, appealed her decision, and the case was pending before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals before Tuesday's dismissal.

The special prosecutor is continuing to pursue charges related to classified documents against two Trump employees, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Both have also pleaded not guilty.

In a filing on Tuesday, Smith said he was continuing to appeal partly to fight Judge Cannon's controversial ruling that the Attorney General did not have the legal power to appoint a special prosecutor. If he succeeds, the question may ultimately be settled by the Supreme Court.

In a statement, John Irving, an attorney for Mr De Oliveira, said: "The Special Counsel’s decision to proceed in this case even after dismissing it against President Trump is an unsurprising tribute to the poor judgment that led to the indictment against Mr. De Oliveira in the first place.

"Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. If they prefer a slow acquittal, that’s fine with us," Mr Irving said.

Trump’s eminent return to the White House has left the state-level criminal cases against him in limbo, too.

His sentencing for his criminal conviction in the state of New York, related to the Stormy Daniels payment, has been indefinitely delayed.

In the Georgia case, where Trump also faces election subversion charges, an appeals court is considering whether to overturn a previous ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case despite a relationship she had with a prosecutor she hired.

Since Trump won the 2024 presidency, “his criminal problems go away”, said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani.

“It’s well established that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted,” he said.