For much of the past several years, Special Counsel Jack Smith has focused on his effort to prosecute President-elect Donald Trump.

Yet in a sign of defeat, Smith is now seeking to drop the charges he brought against Trump over the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. 

Smith asks judge to "vacate the remaining deadlines"

According to Breitbart, the special counsel submitted a filing to Judge Tanya Chutkan just days after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Jack Smith has asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to vacate all remaining deadlines in his case against President-elect Donald J. Trump.

It's done. pic.twitter.com/VSgVcSdlTC

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 8, 2024

In it, he requested "that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy."

The Department of Justice policy in question can be found in a rule which was promulgated over two decades regarding the prosecution of sitting presidents.

It states, "The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions."

Smith faces congressional investigation

While Smith's targeting of Trump may be drawing to a close, the special counsel may continue to find himself in the public spotlight.

Evidence of that came last week when Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Administration Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk sent a letter to Smith.

The letter warned Smith that he should "preserve all existing and future records and materials related to the Office of Special Counsel's investigations and prosecutions of President Trump."

Jordan and Loudermilk are preparing to undertake their own investigations of Smith, a move which is likely to be welcomed by former prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

Former prosecutor says Smith was willing to "bend any rule"

Honig complained in a New York magazine column last month that Smith had "abandoned any pretense" and would "bend any rule, switch up on any practice — so long as he gets to chip away at Trump's electoral prospects."

"At this point, there's simply no defending Smith's conduct on any sort of principled or institutional basis," the former prosecutor asserted.

Honig pointed to the Justice Manual, which provides that "[f]ederal prosecutors … may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election."