Capitol Hill and top secret documents, special prosecutor Smith seeks dismissal for Trump

Trump has repeatedly threatened to fire and prosecute Smith and his team once he resettles in the White House.

"This settlement is not based on the arguments or the strength of the allegations against the defendant," they clarified from the federal prosecutor's office, adding that they were obliged to close the case before 20 January, when Trump takes office. Trump's defenders, on the other hand, called the filing 'a great victory for the rule of law'. "The American people re-elected Trump with an overwhelming mandate to make America great again. The American people and President Trump want to immediately end the use of our justice system as a political weapon and look forward to uniting the country," commented spokesman Steven Cheung.

Two other trials against Trump remain standing, but only formally, handled by state prosecutors, on which the government cannot intervene. In these cases, the judges have been forced to find a compromise way out, to save face and the law that should be the same for all, and to avoid going toe-to-toe with a president who for the first time in US history is facing criminal charges. Following the Supreme Court decision that granted partial immunity to the president himself.

In Georgia, where Trump is accused of lobbying to overturn the 2020 election defeat, the process is mired in appeals and recusals.

In New York, where Trump has already been criminally convicted by a people's jury for falsifying accounting documents in order to pay hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, the judge decided to suspend the settlement of the sentence pending the exhaustion, which will take years, of all appeals filed by the defence.