Judge grants Jack Smith's request to pause Trump's federal Jan. 6 case

Zoom in: Smith said in a motion to vacate filing Friday that "as a result of the election" the government "respectfully requests that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance."

• U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan accepted the motion and vacated all remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule, court filings show.
• The prosecution is to to file a status report "indicating its proposed course for this case going forward" by Dec. 2, per the judge.

Zoom out: Smith has been in discussions with Justice Department officials about how to close his two federal criminal cases against Trump.

• If Trump lost the race against Vice President Harris, he would have faced the prospect of prison time.
• The DOJ has a longstanding policy that a sitting president can't be prosecuted, so Trump's Election Day victory likely means he will not face legal consequences in the criminal cases in which he was indicted.

Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Go deeper: Jack Smith moving to wind down prosecutions against Trump