Judge dismisses Trump election subversion case

A US judge on Monday dismissed the federal criminal case accusing Donald Trump of attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat after prosecutors moved to drop the case and a second case against the president-elect, citing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

The order from US District Judge Tanya Chutkan put an end to the federal effort to hold Trump criminally responsible for his attempts to hold onto power after losing the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

The move came after Special Counsel Jack Smith, the lead prosecutor overseeing both cases, moved to dismiss the election case and end his attempt to revive a separate case accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents when he left office in 2021 after his first term as president.

It represents a big legal victory for the Republican president-elect.

The Justice Department policy that the prosecutors cited dates back to the 1970s. It holds that a criminal prosecution of a sitting president would violate the US Constitution by undermining the ability of the country's chief executive to function. Courts will still have to approve both requests from prosecutors. 

The prosecutors in a filing in the election subversion case said the department's policy requires the case to be dismissed before Trump returns to the White House.

Prosecutors in the documents case signalled they will still ask a federal appeals court to bring back the case against two Trump associates who had been accused of obstructing that investigation.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung hailed what he called "a major victory for the rule of law".

Trump had faced criminal charges in four cases - the two brought by Smith and two in state courts in New York and Georgia. He was convicted in the New York case while the Georgia case, which also relates to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is in limbo. 

In a post on social media, Trump railed on Monday against the legal cases as a "low point in the history of our country".