US special investigator should close criminal proceedings against Donald Trump | US elections 2024

Special counsel will drop their criminal case against Donald Trump before he takes office, two people with direct knowledge of the matter say, after his stunning victory over Kamala Harris meant they would not proceed with the case.

The move reflects the reality that cases will not be completed before Inauguration Day. Once the former president returns to the White House, the special counsel's office would be barred from pursuing further criminal activity under Justice Department guidelines.

The Justice Department has long known that if Trump won, the criminal cases — over Trump's retention of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election — would be closed because Trump's attorney general would likely drop the charges.

But it is also seen as a preemptive measure to ensure that Trump cannot order the firing of special counsel Jack Smith, as he had promised, when he takes office and Smith remains in his role.

This opportunity was relished by Trump's close aides and advisers, who privately imagined that Trump would order Smith's removal and his team would have to vacate its Washington offices.

The Justice Department is still considering how to handle the cases, which are at various stages and are complicated. In particular, the ministry does not want the classified documents case, which was dismissed and is currently under appeal, to go unchallenged.

Failure to appeal the dismissal of the classified documents case because the special counsel himself was unlawfully appointed could set a problematic precedent and impact the Department's ability to appoint special counsel in the future.

Trump launched his 2022 presidential campaign on the pretext of an impending investigation by a special counsel. This investigation examined Trump's withholding of national security materials at his Mar-a-Lago club after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

At rallies and in public statements, he repeatedly told his supporters that he was running for his literal freedom and urged voters to return him to the presidency because the charges would not go away until he was re-elected.

For months, Trump's overarching legal strategy was to delay criminal proceedings until after Tuesday's election. His hope was that if he won, he could appoint a loyalist attorney general who would simply drop prosecutions.

He failed to delay his criminal trial in New York related to his efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 election through an illegal hush-money scheme, which led to his conviction on 34 felony counts. But his conviction hardly made any political impression.

The special counsel's move to preemptively drop the two federal cases comes as Trump's former attorney general, William Barr, issued a statement calling on federal and state prosecutors to drop their cases against Trump.

“The American people have rendered their verdict on President Trump and decisively elected him to lead the country for the next four years. They chose him to lead us despite being aware of allegations against him by prosecutors across the country,” Barr wrote.

“The attorney general and all prosecutors should do the right thing and help the country move forward by dismissing the cases.”

Read more of the Guardian's coverage of the 2024 US election