Iowa AG terms Trump prosecutions ‘shams’

Iowa's attorney general is denouncing the continued prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump, calling them "illegitimate" and risking "a constitutional crisis."

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said Wednesday she is leading a 23-state coalition of officials in a letter demanding that U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis "immediately end their political prosecutions of President Donald Trump," saying the cases "never should have been brought against President Trump at all."

Smith has been evaluating how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case against Trump before Trump takes office in January.

Long-standing Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. The New York Times reported Wednesday morning that Smith intends to step down before Trump returns to office.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this year ex-presidents can’t be prosecuted for actions they take in the course of running the country. The decision also prohibits prosecutors from citing those official actions even to bolster a case centered on purely personal conduct.

The ruling came a little over a month after Trump was convicted by a jury of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payout was to buy her silence about claims that she had sex with Trump.

Trump's criminal conviction was a first for any ex-president. On Tuesday, a judge postponed a decision on whether to undo the conviction as prosecutors consider how to proceed following his re-election to the White House.

Sentencing had been set for Nov. 26. But Manhattan prosecutors now say they’re reassessing and appear open to the possibility the proceedings can’t proceed.

“These are unprecedented circumstances,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo wrote in an email to the court, according to the AP.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove, meanwhile, argued the case must be thrown out altogether “to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”

Bird, in the statement, alleged that the prosecutions "have been a sham from the start."

“President Trump must be able to do his job as president without the threat of prosecutions," Bird said. "I am calling on Special Counsel Smith, Attorney General James and District Attorney Willis to end the political prosecutions so that we can restore faith in our justice system and unify our country.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.