Special prosecutor's motion to pause federal case against Trump granted by judge

New York: A federal judge has granted Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's request to halt the election interference case against US President-elect Donald Trump, in the first sign that the cases against him are crumbling.

Washington Federal Court Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the request on Friday.

In a one-page motion, Smith asked the judge to end the deadlines set for the proceedings because of the “unprecedented circumstances” because the “defendant” is going to be certified as president on January 6 and inaugurated on January 21.

The pause will give the government time to assess the situation and report to the court on December 2 how it wants to proceed, he said.

By tradition, the federal Justice Department does not prosecute sitting presidents.

A local judge in New York has set sentencing on November 26 in the case he was convicted of criminally manipulating account books to hide payments he made to a porn star who had claimed she had a tryst with him.

Since that case was brought by a local prosecutor who was elected to the position as a Democrat, it can continue.

But as a local case, the prosecutor is not bound by tradition and the judge can proceed with the sentencing.

However, the case raises constitutional issues if he is sentenced to prison.

The case, trumpeted by Democrats as a conviction on 34 felony charges, was about bookkeeping where the hush money payments were classified as lawyer’s payment and each check that was cut was turned into a separate charge.

Another federal case against Trump is pending in Florida over him allegedly holding on to classified documents after leaving office in contravention of the official secrets law.

In that case, Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the case saying that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was not done legally.

Smith is appealing the decision in an appeals court and has not made public any decision on pursuing it, although it would seem it would also fall.

President Joe Biden also removed classified documents after he ended his term as vice president but a special counsel who investigated him ruled against filing a case against him because a jury would see him as an ‘“elderly man with a poor memory” and acquit him.

That observation, though, set off the chain of events that culminated with Biden quitting the presidential race after he stumbled in a debate with Trump and his own party members turned against him.

There is yet another state case in Georgia accusing Trump of alleged election interference over requests he made to state officials to "to find 11,780 votes” needed for a majority in the state in the 2020 election.

That case has been snarled by accusations of impropriety by the prosecutor who hired an inexperienced lawyer who was then her boyfriend to prosecute the case.

In a federal case alleging election interference that is being paused, Trump is accused of trying to subvert the 2020 election by spreading false accusations of voter fraud that allegedly instigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters while Congress was certifying Biden’s election.

With inputs from IANS