Donald Trump began this year fighting two federal indictments that threatened to send him to prison. But it will end him free and clear of his most important criminal legal problems.

With his resounding victory at the polls and a long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president, the key question is not if, but when, prosecutors act to dismiss or delay his case of federal interference in the elections. elections in Washington, DC.

Trump recently said he would fire special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” after his return to the White House. Now, that won’t be necessary to end his federal criminal problems.

Smith is taking steps to end both federal cases against Trump before the president-elect takes office, according to a source familiar with Justice Department deliberations.

A grand jury in Washington indicted Trump this year on four felonies in connection with his effort to cling to power in 2020, which culminated in the violent siege of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Judge Tanya Chutkan had set a trial date for March 2024, but that date came and went, after the Supreme Court accepted the case and finally gave Trump significant immunity of prosecution for official actions he took in the White House.

The judge is only now beginning to consider which parts of the prosecution’s case amount to official acts, and which are private conduct, of a person seeking office rather than holding it. That process is likely to stop soon, or after the January inauguration.

The Justice Department appealed a separate criminal case against Trump that accuses the former president of hoarding classified documents at his Mar a Lago resort and refusing to return them to the FBI.

Judge Aileen Cannon, appointed to the bench by Trump, dismissed the case on the first day of this year’s Republican National Convention, arguing that the way the special counsel was appointed violates the Constitution. The Justice Department has been seeking review from a higher court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

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