Topline
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal case against President-elect Donald Trump over the 2020 election has come to a close, as the Justice Department released Smith’s final report on his investigation Tuesday after the case had already been dropped, but many of Trump’s allies could still go to trial for helping his 2020 post-election efforts—and the president-elect’s own state charges still haven’t been dismissed.
Rudy Giuliani speaks after leaving federal court in Washington on Jan. 10.
Associated PressKey Facts
Criminal charges are still pending in five state courts against Trump allies who aided in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, and state charges are also still pending against the president-elect.
Georgia: Trump and 18 of his allies were charged in Georgia state court for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election—though several have since taken guilty pleas—with charges still pending against Trump and such allies as ex-attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Trump attorney John Eastman and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
It’s unclear when—and if—the case will go to trial, however: A state appeals court disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in December from overseeing the case, and while Willis is appealing that decision, it could mean the case will have to be taken over by a different prosecutor, or dropped altogether.
Arizona: Eighteen Trump allies were charged in Arizona state court for their post-election efforts, including Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman and longtime Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn.
Those cases are expected to go to trial in January 2026, though several defendants have taken plea deals.
Michigan: Sixteen Republicans involved with a “fake elector” plot—in which GOP officials submitted false slates of electors to Congress claiming Trump had won—were indicted in Michigan in July 2023, and those charges remain pending.
Nevada: Democratic state Attorney General Aaron Ford brought new charges against six of the state’s fake electors in December, indicting them on forgery charges following a previous effort to prosecute them that was dismissed in June, after the court ruled the charges should have been brought in a different area of the state.
Wisconsin: Democratic state Attorney General Josh Kaul indicted three Trump allies in June for their role in the “fake elector” plot, including former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, and then intensified the case in December, bringing 10 additional charges against those defendants.
Except for the few defendants who have taken plea deals, the defendants charged in the state cases, including Trump, have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Crucial Quote
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, reiterated her office’s dedication to prosecuting Trump’s allies in a letter Sunday asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to send her Smith’s case file for the federal 2020 election case—before Trump takes office and potentially buries the evidence. “Today, my office has one of the only remaining cases that includes charges against national actors,” Mayes wrote. “I have held steadfast to prosecuting the grand jury’s indictment because those who tried to subvert democracy in 2020 must be held accountable.”
News Peg
The Justice Department released Smith’s final report early Tuesday morning on his investigation into Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Smith dropped his case against Trump following the president-elect’s victory and resigned from the DOJ on Friday, prosecutors said in a court filing, so the report’s release marked the final news in the two-year investigation. Smith in the final report defended his decision to charge Trump and reiterated he believed the president-elect committed crimes in his efforts to overturn the election, arguing Trump “resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power” after he lost the election and repeatedly “used specific and knowingly false claims of election fraud,” as Smith has repeatedly alleged Trump pushed false claims of fraud despite knowing they were untrue. The special counsel said the case against Trump was solely dropped because of his impending presidency and not because of anything having to do with the merits of the case, arguing “the admissible evidence” against the president-elect “was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
What To Watch For
It’s still unclear when cases in Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin could go to trial, and what will happen with the Georgia case if the Georgia Supreme Court upholds the ruling disqualifying Willis. It will be up to the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of the State of Georgia to appoint a replacement prosecutor to take over the criminal case, and that prosecutor will have to be from a different Georgia county, as the ruling disqualifying Willis applies to her entire office. There’s no deadline for a new prosecutor to be appointed, however, and it may be a lengthy process, as it previously took Council director Pete Skandalakis, a Republican, nearly two years to appoint a prosecutor to oversee a case against a different Trump ally whom Willis couldn’t prosecute due to a conflict of interest. It’s also possible the case could fall apart altogether if a prosecutor isn’t found, or if that prosecutor ultimately decides the charges should be dropped.
Will Trump Still Face Georgia Charges?
Trump sought to have the criminal charges against him in Georgia thrown out before Willis was disqualified, but the court never ruled on his request before the case got upended. It’s unclear how long it will take before a court can rule on that issue, should the case restart either under Willis or a new prosecutor. Even if the charges against Trump survive, however, it’s unlikely he would go to trial before he leaves office in 2029.
Can Trump Pardon His Allies?
No. Presidents can only pardon people who have been indicted on federal charges, so Trump cannot issue pardons to any of his allies who have cases pending in state courts, or try to pardon himself in the Georgia case. The Washington Post notes he could try and complicate things for prosecutors going after his allies by having his Justice Department launch investigations into prosecutors, but that wouldn’t be enough to stop the cases entirely.
Who Has Taken Guilty Pleas?
Several defendants in the state cases have pleaded guilty to charges against them in exchange for more lenient sentences. Those defendants include former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Chesebro, who both reached plea deals in Georgia, and former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, who pleaded guilty to charges in Georgia and had charges against her dropped in Arizona in exchange for cooperating with the prosecution. Loraine Pellegrino, an Arizona Republican who was charged as part of the state’s criminal case, in August became the first person involved with the “fake elector” plots to plead guilty, accepting a charge for filing a “false instrument.”
Chief Critics
While some defendants have taken plea deals requiring them to express remorse for their actions after the 2020 election, others have remained defiant and continued to make unsubstantiated claims about election fraud. Giuliani has continued to deny any wrongdoing in the two criminal cases against him, with spokesperson Ted Goodman arguing in June the Arizona case was “yet another example of partisan actors weaponizing the criminal justice system to interfere with the 2024 presidential election through outlandish charges against President Trump and anyone willing to take on the permanent Washington political class.” The former New York City mayor has also been fined $148 million for defamation based on false claims tying two Georgia election workers to fraud—which he has not backed down from, and was held in contempt Friday for continuing to repeat the false and defamatory claims. Eastman claimed in May when he pleaded not guilty in Arizona that he “had zero communications with the electors in Arizona [and] zero involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative hearings,” and is “confident that with the laws faithfully applied, I will be fully be exonerated at the end of this process.” The attorney has also continued to falsely suggest there may have been fraud in the 2020 election, claiming on “60 Minutes” in November 2023 that law enforcement is “not investigating [the election results] to the level I think the evidence warrants.”
Key Background
Trump and his allies unsuccessfully carried out a wide-ranging plot after the 2020 election in an effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s win. In addition to the “fake elector” scheme, which the Trump campaign orchestrated and took place in seven states, Trump and his allies lobbied state legislators and officials to reject the results in battleground states, and Trump allegedly tried to pressure the Justice Department to help endorse his false claims of election fraud. The then-president and his allies also filed approximately 60 lawsuits in state and federal courts seeking to challenge the results, nearly all of which failed except for one minor Pennsylvania lawsuit affecting only a small number of ballots. Smith indicted Trump in 2023 on four felony charges related to his post-election activities, though the case never went to trial, as Trump was successfully able to delay it for months while the Supreme Court weighed in on whether the ex-president had immunity from criminal charges. Smith then dismissed the case following Trump’s election in November, as the Justice Department doesn’t allow prosecution against sitting presidents.
Further Reading
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