Smith’s goal is to not leave any significant part of his work for others to complete and to get ahead of Trump’s promise to fire him within “two seconds” of being sworn in, according to sources close to Smith who spoke to the New York Times. Smith led two federal investigations against Trump with one pertaining to his alleged mishandling of classified documents and the other focused on Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election and the subsequent deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

This decision by Smith will make certain that the Department of Justice will follow through on its longstanding tradition of not investigating a sitting president for criminal acts.

It is not clear how quickly he and his team can finish his work on both cases, which makes it uncertain whether the investigations could be made public before President Joe Biden’s administration leaves office in January. Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeatedly implied he intends to release these reports to the public. Smith previously said he needed until Dec. 2 to decide exactly how to wind down both cases.

In June 2023, Smith indicted Trump on charges that he unlawfully retained classified documents and obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them, which Trump pleaded not guilty to in a federal court in Florida. The classified documents case was later thrown out. 

In August 2023, Trump was indicted on four felony counts related to his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, on which he pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C. 

Both of Smith’s cases were riddled with delays as Trump’s legal team appealed various aspects of the prosecutions, including an immunity challenge brought by Trump in his federal election subversion case that made its way to the Supreme Court.

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Since Trump’s win last week, Smith has been in the bullseye of Trump-allies who view him as part of the establishment and the head of their unfounded idea that Democrats have weaponized the justice system against the former president. 

On Friday, House Republicans told Justice Department officials that those who had worked on the Trump cases should preserve all of their communications for investigators, a move which signals that in Trump’s presidency Smith could be among those being scouted by congressional investigators.