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Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who led two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump, has resigned from the Justice Department before the president-elect takes office later this month.
According to a court filing filed Saturday, Smith “separated from the Department” on Friday.
CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, reported in November that Smith would resign from the Justice Department after completing his work.
Smith’s departure comes amid a dispute over the release of his report on the findings of Trump’s classified documents case.
Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022 to oversee two Justice Department cases involving Trump: one for the alleged misappropriation of classified documents and the other for an alleged attempt to interfere in the outcome of the 2020 election.
Both cases resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty and sought to portray the prosecutions as politically motivated.
Smith’s cases against the president-elect were closed last year following Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Prosecutors wrote that Justice Department regulations prohibit the prosecution of a sitting president.
CBS reported in November that Smith’s resignation was expected as it would allow him to leave his position without being fired by Trump or the incoming president’s attorney general.
His departure means he will leave without any of his criminal cases against Trump reaching trial.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversaw the classified documents case and controversially dismissed it last July, temporarily prohibited Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland “disclose, share or transmit” the report on the case.
Trump’s legal team received a draft copy of the report last weekend and it was expected to be released on Friday.
Judge Cannon’s action came after lawyers for Trump’s former co-defendants in the case, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveir, asked her to intervene. Both men had pleaded not guilty.
Judge Cannon ordered the release stayed until a higher appeals court, the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, considered an emergency appeal by Nauta and De Oliveir.
By law, special counsels must present the results of their investigations to the Justice Department, headed by the attorney general. Garland has promised to make all reports public and so far has done so.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Smith did not have the legal authority to file the classified documents report because he was unconstitutionally chosen to do the job and was politically motivated.
Trump’s legal team also wrote to Garland not to release the report and urged him to end the “militarization of the justice system.”
On Friday, a judge sentenced Trump to a “unconditional release” in a criminal case involving hush money payments, meaning he has escaped jail time and a fine but will still take office as the first U.S. president with a felony conviction.
