Election Day wasn’t the only item on President-elect Donald Trump’s calendar in November. The once and future president has a date Nov. 26 with a New York judge for his sentencing hearing.
One day after the election, the Justice Department reportedly determined that special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations—of Trump’s contesting the results of the 2020 election and of the classified documents case—should be dropped because it’s department policy not to prosecute a sitting president.
Both Fox News and MSNBC reported the termination of Smith’s cases.
Meanwhile, a criminal case in Georgia is pending albeit troubled.
The new Trump administration’s Justice Department likely could dismiss federal charges against him, but that leaves state charges in place.
“Plenary authority of the president, with respect to the pardon power, affects federal cases,” said Charles “Cully” Stimson, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia and co-author of the book “Rogue Prosecutors.”
“It does not affect state cases because, of course, we live in a republic and we have 50 sovereign states where the police power resides,” Stimson said. “So it does not affect the state........