Special counsel Jack Smith formally withdrew from the Mar-a-Lago documents case Friday, referring the ongoing prosecution of President-elect Trump’s two co-defendants to federal prosecutors in the southern district of Florida.
Smith formally dropped charges against Trump in both his federal cases in November, dismissing both without prejudice while citing Justice Department policy that prohibits prosecution of a sitting president.
While the move swiftly wrapped Trump’s pending election interference case, the Mar-a-Lago documents case ended for Trump but continues for his two co-defendants.
Trump’s valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira were charged alongside the president-elect for a broader conspiracy to hide boxes of records from his time in office – concealing them both from federal investigators and Trump’s then-attorney.
The two face obstruction of justice charges as well as those for making false statements to investigators. The two men also face various charges related to concealing documents.
Investigators found some 300 documents with classified markings among thousands of pages of records from Trump’s presidency that he took with him when leaving office – breaking the protocol of having such records managed by Archives.
The boxes were shuffled from room to room on the property, even stored on a ballroom stage and in a bathroom while in other cases their contents had spilled onto the floor.
The case is currently sitting before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Smith had challenged a ruling tossing the case from Judge Aileen Cannon, who determined Smith was unlawfully appointed.
That appeal continues, as the Justice Department argues Cannon defied 50 years of precedent regarding special counsels in dismissing the case.
