The departures amount to a tacit acknowledgment that any trial in that case will not happen for many months, if not years.
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The departures on Wednesday are unlikely to be the last from the team overseen by Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed to investigate former President Donald J. Trump.
Two veteran prosecutors who had key roles in the special counsel Jack Smith’s pursuit of classified documents charges against former President Donald J. Trump have left Mr. Smith’s office, people familiar with the move said on Wednesday.
The departures amount to a tacit acknowledgment that any trial in the case will not happen for many months, if not years.
One of the prosecutors, Julie Edelstein, played a prominent role in early court hearings in the documents case and has now returned to the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section, according to the people familiar with the move, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel changes related to the special counsel’s office.
David Raskin, a veteran prosecutor who has handled intelligence-related cases, has returned to his previous role in the national security division at the Justice Department’s headquarters, these people said.
The departures are unlikely to be the last from the team overseen by Mr. Smith, whom Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed in late 2022 to investigate Mr. Trump. Mr. Smith brought charges in two cases, accusing Mr. Trump of jeopardizing national security secrets by mishandling classified papers at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida, and of trying to obstruct government efforts to retrieve them. He was also accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The cases have become enmeshed in long-running legal fights that may push off any federal trials of Mr. Trump until 2026 or later.
The trial judge in the documents case, Judge Aileen M. Cannon of Federal District Court, dismissed the entire indictment this summer, concluding that the appointment of Mr. Smith as special counsel was illegitimate. Mr. Smith has appealed that ruling, arguments that will be heard by a federal appeals court and perhaps eventually the Supreme Court.
In the meantime, if Mr. Trump wins his bid to return to the White House, he is expected to try to scuttle the two criminal cases altogether.
Without a trial to prepare for in the near term, Mr. Smith’s prosecution of the documents case is primarily a job for prosecutors specializing in appeals — meaning less work for Ms. Edelstein and Mr. Raskin.
The departures are another reminder of how Mr. Smith’s assignment could stretch significantly longer than those of recent special counsels. Robert S. Mueller III, who was appointed in 2017 to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election on his behalf, served as a special counsel for about two years.
Robert K. Hur, who was the special counsel investigating classified documents found in President Biden’s home and office after he left the vice presidency, served a little more than a year. John H. Durham, a prosecutor tapped during the Trump administration to investigate possible government misconduct in previous investigations of Mr. Trump, served as special counsel for more than two years, though his investigation began well before the official appointment.
See more on: U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Politics, Donald Trump
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Source: nytimes.com
