Editorial | Dismissal notices free Trump from legal troubles | Editorials

Federal authorities appear to have dropped their prosecution of Trump, at least for now.

There was another sense of surrealism this week when, in an already strange election year, special counsel Jack Smith dropped criminal charges against President-elect Donald Trump.

Smith said the dismissals are necessary because it is the policy of the U.S. Department of Justice that it is unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president.

So is the federal prosecution over? Maybe, maybe not.

Smith filed motions to dismiss the case in two cases (one involving classified documents and the other involving the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot) “without prejudice.”

That means Smith or some other federal prosecutor could refile charges sometime in the future after Trump’s second term.

Or not? There is a slight issue with the statute of limitations, which limits how long criminal charges can be filed. There is, of course, some controversy over this as well, since Smith’s position is that the statute of limitations will not apply during a Trump presidency.

However, Trump’s status as a criminal defendant in federal court has been clarified. He could also pardon himself after being sworn in as president.

There is also a legally questionable New York state verdict in the Trump business records case. The judge indicated he would delay sentencing while Trump is president.

It’s a mess, both legal and political.

Whether one believes these attacks are legitimate or not, they were clearly intended to weaken Trump’s 2024 candidacy by making him unacceptable to voters.

Instead, the string of charges has strengthened his position among voters sympathetic to Trump’s claims that he is being unfairly targeted by Democratic prosecutors. All this, plus political malpractice on the part of the Democrats, put Trump in the winner’s circle on November 5th and will return him to the White House on January 20th.

Yes, truth can be stranger than fiction, and in Trump’s case, that’s certainly the case.

It would be nice if all the drama surrounding the president-elect ended. But this won’t happen. Trump is a bull who carries around his own china shop.

He stirs up a lot of excitement and has a knack for bringing out the worst in his political opponents.

The legal steps taken this week still leave the case open in Georgia state court.

But it has displayed so much prosecutorial misconduct and incompetence that it is impossible to say where it will go next. Perhaps a Georgia court judge will follow the example of a New York state court judge.

Be that as it may, one way or another, it will work itself out, just like the 2024 elections.