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Have any criminal charges against Donald Trump been dismissed or dropped as of November 2025?
Executive summary
As of the available reporting, several federal criminal prosecutions brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith were dropped after Donald Trump won the 2024 election and became a sitting president; Smith withdrew the classified‑documents and election‑subversion federal cases in November 2024 and asked that dismissals be entered “without prejudice,” meaning they could be refiled after Trump leaves office [1] [2]. State prosecutions and some state charges have a different trajectory: a Georgia RICO case was paused, and a few Georgia counts and other state procedural developments produced individual dismissals or changes, but available sources show federal charges were the most prominent set that were dropped after the election [3] [4] [5].
1. Federal cases: Smith moved to drop two main prosecutions after Trump’s election
Special Counsel Jack Smith moved in November 2024 to dismiss both the federal election‑interference case and the Mar‑a‑Lago classified‑documents case after Trump’s election victory, explicitly citing longstanding DOJ policy that generally bars prosecution of a sitting president; those dismissals were entered “without prejudice,” which Smith’s office said was not a comment on the merits of the cases [1] [2] [6]. Multiple outlets recount that Smith’s team said the decisions were driven by the fact that prosecuting a sitting president would be illegal, and the special counsel’s final report insisted there was sufficient evidence even as charges were dropped [2] [6].
2. “Without prejudice” matters: charges could be refiled, per reporting
For the federal matters Smith dropped, reporting emphasizes the legal meaning of “without prejudice”: prosecutors preserved the option to refile charges after Trump is out of office, instead of permanently barring future prosecution (“with prejudice”) — a point both Forbes and the BBC noted when summarizing Smith’s filings and statements [2] [1].
3. State cases: mixed outcomes, paused proceedings, and selective dismissals
State prosecutions followed distinct paths. Fulton County, Georgia’s prosecution was paused amid disputes about the local prosecutor and later changes in who would pursue the case; some counts in Georgia were dropped by a judge in at least one order, while others remain subject to review and new prosecutorial decisions [3] [4]. Channel 4 and other fact‑checks reported that some charges across jurisdictions were dismissed or paused after the election, but they treat federal and state outcomes separately [5].
4. New developments: pardons and ongoing state exposure
Reporting in November 2025 describes President Trump issuing federal pardons to allies charged in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a move that affects only federal exposures and not state prosecutions; Reuters explicitly notes that pardons do not apply to state charges and reiterated that some federal cases had been dismissed after the election citing DOJ policy [7]. Georgia’s state case remains operationally different: local prosecutors and judges have continued to make decisions independent of federal action [3].
5. What was not found in current reporting
Available sources do not mention a blanket permanent extinguishing of all criminal exposure for Trump across federal and state venues; rather, they show targeted federal dismissals tied to presidential immunity policy and varied state outcomes, including pauses, some dropped counts, and other procedural moves [2] [1] [3]. Available sources do not mention any federal dismissal “with prejudice” that would bar refiling after Trump leaves office [2] [1].
6. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas in coverage
Conservative‑leaning outlets and Trump statements present the November drops as conclusive vindication, while prosecutors and some outlets stress that the drops were procedural — tied to presidential‑immunity policy — not findings of innocence; Smith’s own report asserted the prosecutions had merit even as they were paused [2] [6]. Some news organizations and fact‑checks emphasize legal nuance (dismissal without prejudice, DOJ policy), while opinion pieces frame the moves politically; readers should note that outlets differ in whether they highlight prosecutorial restraint or political benefit to the president [5] [8].
7. Bottom line for the reader
In short: key federal criminal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith were dropped after Trump won the 2024 election, with prosecutors asking for dismissals without prejudice because DOJ policy generally bars prosecuting a sitting president [1] [2]. State cases have produced a mix of pauses, dismissals of particular counts, and continuing legal maneuvering; pardons affect only federal matters and do not erase state charges [4] [7] [3].