"A low point in our country's history that something like this could have happened, and yet I held out, and won", writes Donald Trump about the developments on his platform Truth Social. He also accuses the Democrats of being behind the "campaign" against him.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith has formally requested that the cases be dropped based on the Justice Department's policy that prevents prosecution of a sitting president.
The four criminal charges related to the storming of the Capitol and the charges regarding Trump's handling of classified documents stored in his residence Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left the White House are thus being dropped.
Election victory changed the circumstances
"The government's stance on the issue of the accused's prosecution has not changed", writes Smith in his submission regarding the Capitol storming – which has been considered the most serious of the legal proceedings against Trump.
"But the circumstances have", he continues.
Prosecutors have called the storming of the Capitol a criminal conspiracy to hold onto power, with supporters' attack on the Congress building.
Among the now-dismissed charges were attempts to defraud the state, attempts to stop a public official, and attempts to stop people from exercising their constitutionally protected rights.
Trump has consistently denied the allegations and described both cases as politically motivated. He has also promised to fire Smith as soon as he takes office in January.
Other charges on ice
In May, a court in New York found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying documents and violating accounting laws in connection with the payment of so-called hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels. The decision on punishment has, however, been postponed indefinitely.
Trump is also being prosecuted for attempting to get election officials to overturn the result of the state election in Georgia in 2020. The case is practically on ice while a court decides whether the prosecutor should be disqualified, a decision not expected until 2025.
On January 6, 2021, the US Congress gathered in the Capitol to count the presidential election's electoral votes and formally declare Democrat Joe Biden the winner and next president.
At the same time, tens of thousands of Donald Trump supporters gathered for a political mass rally nearby. There, Trump repeated his false claims of systematic election fraud and claimed he was the real winner. He urged his supporters to go to Congress and "fight like hell".
Parts of the crowd did as he said. The protests turned violent when hundreds of people stormed the Capitol, clashed with police, vandalized, and broke into one of the chambers.
