Jack Smith, the special counsel leading two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump, has resigned from the Justice Department before the president-elect takes office later this month.
According to a court affidavit filed Saturday, Mr. Smith “separated from the department” on Friday.
CBS News, the US media partner of the BBC, reported in November that Smith will resign from the Department of Justice after he completes his work.
Mr Smith's departure comes amid controversy over the release of his report on findings in the Trump classified documents case.
Mr. Smith was appointed as a special counsel in 2022 to oversee two Justice Department cases against Trump — one alleging improper storage of classified documents and the other an alleged attempt to interfere with the outcome of the 2020 election.
Both cases resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty and tried to frame the charges as politically motivated.
Mr. Smith's cases against the president-elect were closed last year after Trump won the presidential election. Prosecutors wrote that Justice Department regulations bar the prosecution of a sitting president.
CBS reported in November that Mr. Smith's resignation was expected because it would allow him to leave his post without being fired by Trump or the incoming president's attorney general.
His departure means he leaves without any of his criminal cases against Trump ever going to trial.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon — who oversaw the classified documents case and controversially dismissed it last July — temporarily banned Mr Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland from “releasing, sharing or transmitting” the case report.
Trump's legal team received a draft of the report last weekend and it was expected to be released as soon as Friday.
Judge Cannon's move came after lawyers for Trump's former co-defendants in the case — Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira — urged her to intervene. Both men had pleaded not guilty.
Judge Cannon ordered the release stayed while a higher court of appeals, the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, considered an urgent appeal by Mr. Nauta and Mr. De Oliveir.
By law, special prosecutors must report the results of their investigations to the Department of Justice, which is headed by the attorney general. Garland promised to release all reports to the public and so far has done so.
Trump's lawyers argued that Mr. Smith did not have the legal authority to submit the report on the classified documents because he was unconstitutionally appointed to do the job and was politically motivated.
Trump's legal team also wrote to Garland not to release the report and urged him to end the “weaponization of the judiciary.”
On Friday, a judge sentenced Trump to “parole” on a criminal charge related to secret money payments, meaning he was spared jail and a fine, but he would still take office as the first US president with a felony conviction.