Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped a new filing in the case against former President Donald Trump and was called out in a blistering column by CNN’s Elie Honig.
The CNN senior legal analyst accused Smith of “bending ordinary procedure” with the lengthy motion that even Judge Tanya Chutkan found unusual in that it was filed ahead of any defense motion.
In the column titled, “Jack Smith’s October Cheap Shot,” the former federal and state prosecutor blasted Smith for trying to “get in one last shot” against Trump just weeks before Election Day.
“Smith has now dropped a 165-page doorstop of a filing in federal court, on the issue of Trump’s immunity from prosecution. Judge Tanya Chutkan — who suddenly claims not to care about the impending election despite her earlier efforts to expedite the case to get it in before the very same election, which got her reversed and chastised by the Supreme Court — duly complied with Smith’s wishes,” Honig wrote in a scathing rebuke of the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
My @cnn colleague @eliehonig always tells the truth on the legal stuff, folks. https://t.co/mFLi4q4Ah7
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 4, 2024
Smith’s “oversize brief” has more details about the accusations against Trump but Honig noted that the glaring issue is that Smith “has essentially abandoned any pretense; he’ll bend any rule, switch up on any practice — so long as he gets to chip away at Trump’s electoral prospects.”
“At this point, there’s simply no defending Smith’s conduct on any sort of principled or institutional basis,” Honig continued, acknowledging that voters need information before filling their balots but it’s not an excuse for Smith’s “unprincipled, norm-breaking practice.”
He went on to break down the many problems with the filing, beginning with its unusual order in that it was filed before the defense, going against years of procedure. Honig called out the judge who “ruled in Smith’s favor, as she’s done at virtually every consequential turn.”
“Smith’s proactive filing is prejudicial to Trump, legally and politically,” Honig wrote, pointing to the irony since Smith issued a “preposterously broad” gag order on Trump and then filed a motion that includes normally secret grand-jury testimony.
The document, Honig contended, “contains all manner of damaging statements about a criminal defendant, made outside of a trial setting and without being subjected to the rules of evidence or cross-examination, and files it publicly, generating national headlines.”
“You know who’ll see those allegations? The voters, sure — and also members of the jury pool,” he noted.
“Smith’s conduct here violates core DOJ principle and policy,” Honig wrote, pointing to a portion of the Justice Manual which states: “Federal prosecutors … may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election.”
“Remember, Smith begged the judge to flip the rules on their head so he could file this document first, and quickly — ‘any action,’ by any reasonable definition — with the election right around the corner,” he explained.
“If prosecutors bend their principles depending on the identity of their prey, then they’ve got no principles at all,” Honig concluded.
Trump blasted the move by Smith in a fiery post to Truth Social.
Trump slams DOJ for violating own ‘election interference’ rule https://t.co/Kf3DKVIy8H via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) October 3, 2024
“FOR 60 DAYS PRIOR TO AN ELECTION, THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE IS SUPPOSED TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT WOULD TAINT OR INTERFERE WITH A CASE,” he wrote in all-caps late Thursday.
“THEY DISOBEYED THEIR OWN RULE IN FAVOR OF COMPLETE AND TOTAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE. I DID NOTHING WRONG, THEY DID! THE CASE IS A SCAM, JUST LIKE ALL OF THE OTHERS, INCLUDING THE DOCUMENTS CASE, WHICH WAS DISMISSED!” the former president added.
Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro was also convinced the move was “election interference.”
Judge Jeanine Pirro: “There’s no question that the Department of Justice has had regulations over the years that say – Whenever there is an Election on a State or National level, you do not release, Number One, an investigation, an Indictment, anything that may impact the…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) October 3, 2024
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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