US prosecutors give up:
Two further criminal proceedings against Trump halted
Donald Trump can probably breathe a sigh of relief: on Monday, the prosecutors applied for two criminal proceedings against the US President-elect to be dropped. The reason: the Department of Justice does not take action against sitting presidents. This is required by the constitution, the prosecutors said.
"The government's position on the merits of the defendant's prosecution has not changed. But the circumstances have changed," the motion letter states.
Renewed charges possible after term of office
The public prosecutor's office emphasizes that the decision has no substantive reasons. However, it is leaving open the possibility of bringing new charges as soon as the Republican is no longer president.
The announcement of the sentence in the hush money case against Trump was recently postponed indefinitely.
On Monday, the responsible US public prosecutor's office first announced the application to discontinue the criminal proceedings against Trump for attempted electoral fraud.
Proceedings 1: Attempted election fraud
Trump had been charged in Washington at federal level in connection with attempted election fraud and the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. These were the most serious charges against the 78-year-old. If convicted, he would have faced decades in prison.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith revised the charges in the summer after the Supreme Court granted US presidents far-reaching immunity for official acts.
Proceedings 2: document affair
Trump also got away with a second case: the investigation into the document affair was also dropped. The FBI had searched his property in Mar-a-Lago two years ago and confiscated numerous classified documents from his time in office - some with the highest classification level.
Trump spoke of a "witch hunt"
With its decision, the Department of Justice has probably only beaten Trump to the punch. As the proceedings are at federal level, Trump would probably have stopped the investigations anyway after taking office and instructed the Department of Justice to drop the proceedings. Trump has always described the investigations against him as political persecution and spoke of a "witch hunt". Experts also believe it is possible that Trump could pardon himself once he is in office.
Trump was criminally charged several times after his first term in office. In addition to the proceedings in Washington, he was accused in the US state of Florida, for example, of unlawfully storing highly sensitive information from his time in office as president in private rooms. The judiciary also took action against him in New York and Georgia. At one point, it looked as though Trump would spend much of the election year in court due to the numerous investigations against him. However, Trump's lawyers managed to block the proceedings with legal dodges.
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