Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice did not drop or scale back the classified-documents case against Donald Trump after the Biden documents discovery.

Key facts:

• On November 18, 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee investigations involving Donald Trump, including the Mar-a-Lago classified-documents matter. The appointment remained in force after the January 2023 revelations about classified documents found at Biden’s former office and residence.
• On June 9, 2023, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted Trump on 37 counts related to retention of national defense information, obstruction, and false statements arising from his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
• On July 27, 2023, a superseding indictment added further charges and an additional defendant, expanding rather than narrowing the case.
• As of late 2025, the Mar-a-Lago documents prosecution has not been dropped; it remains an active federal criminal case, with ongoing pretrial litigation and no indication that DOJ has abandoned or materially scaled back the core classified-documents charges.

Because the DOJ proceeded to charge Trump and has continued to pursue that prosecution, the prediction that Garland would "have to drop the prosecution ... or at least that part" related to the documents at Mar-a-Lago did not come true.