Special counsel Jack Smith resigns ahead of Trump inauguration

• Trump is the first convicted felon to win the presidency, but he avoided any consequences in his New York hush money case.
• With Trump's victory, Smith's cases — over the 2020 election and classified documents — were imperiled and weeks after the election, he requested the former to be dropped and his appeal in the latter to be dismissed.
• The two cases had already been undercut by the Supreme Court's immunity ruling.
• However, a federal appeals court said this week that Smith's final report on his investigations into Trump can be released despite the president-elect's strenuous objections.
• The New York Times first reported on Nov. 13, that Smith planned to resign once the report was complete.

State of play: Since Trump's re-election, Smith was in discussions with Justice Department officials about how to wind down his two federal prosecutions of Trump.

• The Justice Department has a longstanding policy that a sitting president can't be prosecuted.

• Trump also vowed on the campaign trail to fire Smith "within two seconds" of returning to office.

Zoom out: The Justice Department has faced criticism from some Democrats that it moved too slowly in its investigations of Trump.

• In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Smith dug in on the Jan. 6 case, unsealing a new indictment in light of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling and unveiling new evidence.

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