Below is my column in The Hill on the one thing that the forthcoming report of Special Counsel Jack Smith will not address: how he destroyed his own case against Donald Trump. Smith will be something of a tragic figure for future special counsels. The only thing missing is a shirt reading, “I spent over two years and $50 million dollars and all I got was this lousy t-shirt (and a redacted report).”
Here is the column:
The expected release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report will occur as early as this weekend, albeit without those sections dealing with the Florida documents case. (Other defendants are still facing prosecution in that case.) However, the most glaring omission will be arguably an explanation of how Smith lost this war without firing a single shot in a trial.
After more than two years, two separate cases and countless appeals (not to mention more than $50 million spent), Smith left without presenting a single witness, let alone charge, at trial. It is an example of how a general can have the largest army and unlimited resources and yet defeat himself with a series of miscalculations.
History probably won’t be kind to Smith, whose record bespeaks a “parade general” — a prosecutor who offered more pretense than progress in the prosecution of an American president.
Indeed, this report will be one of Smith’s last chances to display a case that notably never got close to an actual trial. One-sided and unfiltered, it will have all of the thrill of a Sousa march of a regiment in full dress. We know because we have seen much of this before. At every juncture, Smith has taken his case out on parade in the court of public opinion.
The Smith report will reportedly concern only the Washington case alleging crimes related to Jan. 6 and the 2020 election — a case that was always a bridge too far for Smith.
When first appointed, Smith had a straightforward and relatively easy case to make against Trump over his removal and retention of presidential materials. The case was not without controversy. Some of us questioned the selective nature of the prosecution given past violations by other presidents, particularly as shown by the violations of President Biden going back decades found by another special counsel.
However, the case originally focused on the conspiracy and false statements during the federal investigation into the documents at Mar-a-Lago. Those are well-established crimes that Smith could have brought to trial quickly with a solid shot for conviction.
But Smith’s undoing has always been his appetite. That was evident when he was unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court in his case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
In Florida, Smith was in signature form. He took a simple case and loaded it up with press-grabbing charges regarding the retention of classified material. In so doing, he slowed the case to a crawl. As a defense lawyer who has handled classified documents cases, I said at the outset that I did not believe he could get this case to a jury before the 2024 election, and that after that election, Smith might not have a case to present. Smith had outmaneuvered himself.
Then came the Washington filing, the subject of this forthcoming report. It was another vintage Smith moment. Smith played to the public in a case that pushed both the Constitution and statutory provisions beyond the breaking point. He simply could not resist, and he was only encouraged after the assignment of Judge Tanya Chutkan, a judge viewed by many as predisposed against Trump.
In a sentencing hearing of a Jan. 6 rioter in 2022, Chutkan had said that the rioters “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.” She added then, “[i]t’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.” That “one person” was then brought to her for trial by Smith.
The D.C. case was doomed from the outset by both a prosecutor and judge who, in their zeal to bag Trump, yielded to every temptation. As time ticked away, Smith became almost apoplectic in demanding an expedited path to trial, including cutting short appeals. After refusing to recuse herself, Chutkan seemed to indulge Smith at every turn. But the Supreme Court failed to agree that speed should trump substance in such reviews.
With both cases slipping out of his grasp, Smith then threw a final Hail Mary. He asked Chutkan to let him file what was basically a 165-page summary of this report against Trump before the election. There was no apparent reason for the public release of the filing, except to influence the election — a motivation long barred by Justice Department rules.
Chutkan, of course, allowed it anyway, despite admitting that the request was “procedurally irregular.”
It did not work. Although the press and pundits eagerly repeated the allegations in the filing, the public had long ago reached its own conclusion and rendered its own verdict in November.
In my view, Smith’s D.C. case would never have been upheld, even if he had made it to a favorable jury in front of a motivated judge. As established by the court in Trump v. United States, Smith could not rely on much of his complaint due to violating constitutionally protected areas.
Smith responded to the immunity decision again in typical Smith fashion, largely keeping the same claims with minimal changes. His new indictment was to indictments what shrinkflation is to consumer products — the same package with less content. As in the McDonnell case, Smith was going for conviction at all costs, despite a high likelihood of the case eventually being overturned.
Then the public effectively put an end to both cases by electing Trump.
The Smith investigation should be a case study for future prosecutors in what not to do. An abundance of appetite and arrogance can prove as deadly as a paucity of evidence and authority.
Ironically, Smith will not be the only special counsel offering such a cautionary tale. The report of Special Counsel David Weiss into the Hunter Biden controversy will also be released soon. Weiss was widely denounced for allowing major crimes to lapse against Hunter Biden and offering an embarrassing sweetheart plea deal that collapsed in open court. Notably, Weiss succeeded by minimizing his charges (for the wrong reason). In that way, Weiss has one claim that Smith does not: He made it to court and secured a conviction. Indeed, he was about to prosecute a second case when President Biden pardoned his son.
Weiss’s report will likely only increase questions over his failure to pursue Hunter more aggressively. For Smith, the question is whether he was too aggressive, to the detriment of his own prosecution.
Prosecutions are not the sole measure of success for a special prosecutor. At times, the report itself can be of equal, if not greater, importance to the public.
This is not one of those cases.
The public will be given Smith’s detailed account of a case that was never brought and would likely never have held up. At more than $50 million, it is arguably the biggest flop since “The Adventures of Pluto Nash.“ The difference is that it did not take more than two years to watch Eddie Murphy’s film disaster, and the actor did not then write up a report on how good the movie really was.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
The non-partisan conclusion of the past 25 years:
“Excessive Secrecy” actually harms national security and the rich & powerful generally aren’t bound by laws or constitution. Unless the rich & powerful piss off their own class (ie: Bernie Madoff).
Only the Little People are required to follow laws!
Don’t let facts get in the way of your cult beliefs.
In 2017, Trump inherited a strong economy from President Obama and never stopped congratulating himself for it. He claimed that “we created the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
Rubbish. Trump tanked the economy with his trade wars and his botched pandemic response.
I wonder if Anonymous has one of those vaccines that was Trump’s “botched pandemic response” circulating through their body that they rushed to get the moment they were available? The vaccines the world’s experts said would take years to develop.
The Cult Of Bribery Biden is never afraid to Anonymously continue lying in hopes they will still win the 2024 election.
Old Airborne Dog
Stop it Francis you’re killing us.
Obama’s economics = burdensome regulation = quantitative easing = inflation, Trump policy of deregulation and tariffs obliterated it to provide for the most robust economy of our lifetime. The Covid pandemic unleashed upon the world by China from a biowarfare lab in Wuhan partially funded by the Obama Administration led to the economic downturn and chaos just in time for mail in ballots election, surprising not!
The Obama economy was anemic. So much so that the median income went down for the first time in modern history. It was such a big deal, even NPR had to report on it. The Trump economy was doing just fine until the COVID lockdowns. As we now all know now and back then some of us suspected, the lockdowns, masks, social distancing etc. were failures from the start. The Great Barrington Declaration proved it.
Unfortunately, Trump is about to inherit the Biden economy train wreck. It is going to take years if not a decade to fix Biden’s failed financial policies. Of course you are going to blame it on Trump, but we all know it was Biden’s failures that will bring a financial crisis. Here is just one example, New Biden-Harris Medicare plan could cost taxpayers $20 billion in election-year giveaway, CBO warns https://justthenews.com/government/congress/new-biden-harris-medicare-plan-could-cost-taxpayers-20-billion-over-next-three
Note the source is the CBO.
Always enjoy reading your articles.
Trump Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth has in the past raged against efforts to change the names of military bases named after Confederate generals — and has even floated bringing the old names back.
No racism here, move along. Come back in 2 years and bid you your black slave to be your personal servant.
Naming bases after native local Southerners, like allowing memorials to Southerners on Federall-maintained battlefields such as Antietam and Gettysburg, were steps toward reconciliation. Changing those names was and is a form of retribution and feeding the woke beast. A Methodist church in Idaho removed a small, decades-old figure of Gen. Lee from among the personages in a stained glass window. The “open minds and open hearts” the figure represented was reversed into “we’ll show who’s boss today”, hardly a representation of “let’s bury the hatchet and move on together”, turning the cheek a thousand times or loving others.
I agree 100%, let’s celebrate people that thought it was fine to own other human beings.
Come back in 2 years and you too can bid on. your own black servant.
I hope you buffoons continue to war against the past. While you are barking at the moon, Trump and the Republicans can focus on things that matter: making people freer; more prosperous; with less military conflict.
That will bury your party six feet under – where it has belonged for decades.
But only if you swear fealty to trump.
Yes indeed, freedom, my way or we’ll kill you.
You do realize what you are saying don’t you? Dump question, of course you don’t, just obey the cult leader, thinking not allowed.
“Come back in 2 years and you too can bid on. your own black servant.”
No need to wait years. Enigmainblackcom comes here regularly to do his Democrat Uncle Tom song and dance in support of Biden.
Now you keep on celebrating the current Oval Office house plant who said when he was a Kluxxer Senator that he didn’t want jungle bunnies in public schools.
And of course, said in his 40+ years in Washington DC, he never met a single decent, clean, well spoken black boy among his party’s senators and Congressmen.
Hey Anonymous cowardly Democrat: ain’t it great how the Internet always remembers, even if the memory of Democrats is about as long as Gigi’s list of men who want to bed her?
Old Airborne Dog
Why don’t you learn some history about the Civil War and the Generals of the confederacy before running your yapper. I think of the Civil War akin to the New Green Deal, some federal bureaucrats mandating controls on States manufacturing without providing a viable alternative. Mandates that would destroy your businesses, taking of properties and sending people into financial ruin, while imposing taxation to cripple an entire segment of the economy.
Thank you for admitting you believe that blacks should have remained slaves.
How can anyone support naming anything after a person that thought it a good idea that a person can own another person?
Nope, not right.
Take your god given right to own and abuse another human being and shove it up your A$$.
Slavery was on its way out, of course it was wrong nice try at redirect. Different times and different circumstances of necessity, pre industrialization of farming. I guess the black slavers should have listened to King George outlawing the practice in the late 1700’s and further expanded by English law in the mid 1800’s. The ONlY reason Lincoln wrote the proclamation of emancipation was to redirect issue away from taxation and States rights and make the war focused around slavery. This was to thwart European financial support of the Southern States, for with it would have been the end of the Union. Agricultural products were the tax base for a growing federal bureaucracy while manufacturing and industrial goods remained exempt. The South tired of the North’s (Federal) over reach into their pockets, it’s always about the money, look around. Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it.
“Agricultural products were the tax base for a growing federal bureaucracy while manufacturing and industrial goods remained exempt. The South tired of the North’s (Federal) over reach into their pockets, it’s always about the money, look around. ”
Exactly! For anyone who wants to understand what really happened, rather than blindly accept “what everybody knows” (nearly always a bogus premise), Tom DiLorenzo’s book “The Real Lincoln” has pretty extensive documentation (with footnotes & cites) of the situation at that time. Also, I challenge anyone to show me where and how secession is prohibited to the States. First, the Constitution is written so as to extend only specifically enumerated powers to the Federal government. There is nothing in the original text prohibiting a State from withdrawing from the Union; if there was, it would be in Article IV, Section 3, which defines the process and requirements for admitting a new State. If that is not sufficient, the 10th Amendment makes it even clearer:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
So, absent any language that can be reasonably interpreted as forbidding a State to secede, if the People of a State should decide to do so, any action taken by the Federal government to prevent it would be (and remains) facially unconstitutional.
I would tell these idiots that have attempted to remove and rewrite our National history to actually read the history of these Confederate Generals. For the most part they were descendants of the Nations founding members. They were mostly West Point graduates and friends with their federal Union counterparts and opponents. Confederate Gen A P Hill and Union General George McClellan were school friends and engaged to the same woman prior to the war, with McClellan winning the bride. His Union opponent General Burnside had borrowed $8000 dollars from him during their school days, a debt never paid. Hill would frequently walk with his troopers allowing a tired man to set his mount, he would stand their guard on occasion and he once beat a teamster with his sheathed sword for mistreating the team of horses.
These were honorable men, far more honorable than the people trying to misrepresent their actions and lives. The monuments were a place for the families that lost their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers a place to grieve as most bodies were never returned. These monuments need to be returned and this foolishness abandoned.
“Agricultural products were the tax base for a growing federal bureaucracy while manufacturing and industrial goods remained exempt. The South tired of the North’s (Federal) over reach into their pockets, it’s always about the money, look around. ”
Exactly! For anyone who wants to understand what really happened, rather than blindly accept “what everybody knows” (nearly always a bogus premise), Tom DiLorenzo’s book “The Real Lincoln” has pretty extensive documentation (with footnotes & cites) of the situation at that time. Also, I challenge anyone to show me where and how secession is prohibited to the States. First, the Constitution is written so as to extend only specifically enumerated powers to the Federal government. There is nothing in the original text prohibiting a State from withdrawing from the Union; if there was, it would be in Article IV, Section 3, which defines the process and requirements for admitting a new State. If that is not sufficient, the 10th Amendment makes it even clearer:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
So, absent any language that can be reasonably interpreted as forbidding a State to secede, if the People of a State should decide to do so, any action taken by the Federal government to prevent it would be (and remains) facially unconstitutional.
“No racism here, move along. ”
Has Kluxxer Biden started removing the name, likeness and statues of Woodrow Wilson from all federal facilities, the champion racist Democrat well ahead of the other racist Democrat presidents?
Or no racism here (but don’t you dare let them damned jungle bunnies into the public schools my pureblood son Hunter is attending)?
Nothing to see here, move along…
Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump’s team, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
At least some of these nonpolitical employees have begun packing up their belongings since being asked about their loyalty to Trump — after they had earlier been given indications that they would be asked to stay on at the NSC in the new administration, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.
This, of course, is grossly untrue.
Incoming NSA Mike Waltz has long since announced nobody is staying. Period.
Don’t you think The Great Obama made sure that all his detailees were on board with him politically before they were appointed, and Bush holdovers who weren’t were sent back to their agency?
Well when you had traitors supposedly within your own administration writing articles and even books attacking the team they work with under the name ANONYMOUS you need to get the team under control.
Notice that there weren’t any “Anonymous” written articles or books under Joe Biden, the most corrupt and demented person to ever sit in the WH???
Funny how in the end of these countless, politically motivated attempts to somehow ‘get’ Trump by the sick left wing, it’s always the lawyers who win in the end. Tens of millions of dollars feeding the coffers of defense lawyers, who have every incentive to keep the persecutions going until their clients are broke. And corrupt prosecutors like Smith, who have every incentive to keep the persecution going to become a beloved media entity by leftists, and to assuage his TDS.
Or like Marc Elias who kept the gravy train going in PA long after everyone, INCLUDING AP, called the race for McCormick.
So tell us what’s going to happen to Chutkin?
Nothing.
I am quite sure the accounting of the $50 Million will be a redacted section of the Report. There will be no spreadsheet of expenses and payments to the many that made money on this case. Follow the money and you will find the culprits of this Fairytale.
I wonder how they will post all the expenses on their ledger? $5000 for inspection of Melania Trump’s lingerie drawer. What a misjustice, zerp accountability as usual.
I feel sure that the primary motive in the Get Trump series was not money but trophy kills of Trump – not more money in the bank account but stuffed redheads on the wall.
What history will show are two case studies in how the legal system can be weaponized in defiance of justice. Smith’s will be an example of political persecution. Weiss’ will be an example of political protection. The studies will also show how this corruption of our justice system relies heavily on an equally corrupted media.
You said it so well! 💯
OLLY,
Well said. I was going to comment something along those very lines. History will not be kind to these people and even less so for the Biden admin. The good news is we now have examples of what not to do in legal cases!
The good news is we now have examples of what not to do in legal cases!
Thank you Upstate. Examples abound throughout history; Lavrentiy Beria’sShow me the man and I’ll show you the crime example apparently was too far in the way-back machine for people to remember. Or perhaps if they did, they never believed it could happen here. What’s even worse and far more probable is that they don’t care, as long as they aren’t getting “the boot on their neck.”
Don’t feel bad for the former prosecutor. I’m sure Mr. Smith will make plenty of $$$ writing a book and making appearances at select venues where certain individuals will cry “oh what should have been”. Maybe even a regular on CNN or, if it survives, MSNBC. Could he even become the next George Stephanopoulos?
I guess, he’ll get on the ICC again and go after Netenayhu. In vain.
I will offer a deal to liberal Democrats, let Smith release his one sided, biased report and force Garland to release the audio tapes of the Hur interview with Biden.
Let’s see how “sharp as a tack” Joe Biden was as far back as a few years ago.
You offer a deal? What a stupid argument. Friend, get some smarts. Please.
“You offer a deal? What a stupid argument. Friend get some smarts. Please.” That is your response to my “argument” that maybe, with tongue in cheek, we could somehow get Garland to release the Hur audio tapes?
Reading this particular comment by one of the usual “Anonymous” losers is like watching a child try to argue that they really didn’t eat the cookies. Except the child is cute and the “Anonymous” loser is a pathetic person with an odd need to comment 100 times a day.
If I were an “Anonymous” and read another “Anonymous'” inane comments every half hour, I’d try to change my name to “Anonymous Jones,” or something clever like that.
HullBobby,
Well said and spot on. It is rather amusing to see the anonymorn respond to it’s own comments or even argue with it’s self.
Anomaly
Such a nasty antagonist
The tag-team of Smith and Chutkan epitomize all that is corrupt and rotten in the Department of “Just Us” and the federal judiciary, the Republic’s 2025 version of the Third Reich’s Volksgerictshof. Time for a complete housecleaning…, followed by a thorough fumigation.
This is all interesting but from the point of view of the average American, what ramifications will these corrupt people face? The average American goes to jail, they go on to more BS and wasteful spending of our taxes.
I read, the smith people are lawyering-up. Whoever is the AG, hopefully, will convine a committe to expose them. Jail, doubt it.
Of course….once again, lawyers will rake in millions defending the corruption of other lawyers. What a great legal system…for lawyers. Of course, poor people simply go to jail after feeble defense by their public defenders. The wealthy and corrupt ‘lawyer up’ with experienced barristers, very good at getting their guilty clients off the hook, but only if you can afford them.
I support republicans…jailing democrats….turn around is fair play
Its not about fair play man, it about the law. And its blind.
What case? The deep state totally corrupt case?
Corrupt? First, it has to be proven the process was corrupted. Get that?
Don’t be part of a mob.
Denial is not a river in Africa, Fredo! Snap out of your narcoleptic mind nap.
Weird stuff. From out here in the bleachersI can’t see anything wrong that Trump did wrt to Jan 6 or the 2020 election. I think of Smith as a less-than-special persecutor.
Now write about those TS/SCI dox he stashed in a bathroom at maralogo.
At least he didn’t store them in his garage,,,
Wally, you mean a PRESIDENT too classified documents and stored them in a SECRET SERVICE protected venue while your man, Joe Biden, took classified documents while being a SENATOR and VICE-president and kept them in a CHINA suppurted think tank and his GARAGE?
Wally, a man that is either too stupid to grasp the difference shown above, too partisan to not be a damn hypocrite regarding the above, or both.
HullBobby,
Well said and good on you for calling out the hypocrite.
OK. My peasant-level understanding of that is that POTUS can declassify whatever he wants and doesn’t need to ask permission or fill out forms. Looked like just more Biden cabal attacks to me.
Jack Smith and his band of Anti-Trump Zealots, with DOJ/Biden Team/Anit Trump Lawfare groups, get Trump at all costs is a Crime against the American people. The DEMS and Uniparty/Washington Elite efforts to stop Trump will go down in history as Jonthan states. They all should be prosecuted and lose their law license and thrown in Jail, Washington DC hell whole, where they keep the J6. Lets see if Biden, as he promises, extends Pardons? wrongfully, for all those who helped him throw Trump in Jail. Perhaps flights leaving the country, this week will see a number of the Admin./Get Trump crowd, with one way tickets out of the country. These people ruined many people and now the shoe is on the other foot and the Rats are running and seeking Legal advice. 7 Days to run.
Mike Nifong redux
Can anyone explain why Trump is not challenging the release of the report on the ground that Smith was not properly appointed? In her Florida decision, that’s what Cannon held.
Ask Trump’s lawyers.
Don’t expect an answer from anyone here. Here are only pompus fools.
Why don’t you go research that question and get back to us.
Well, at least we can spell ‘pompous’…fool.
Cannon, thinking trump will be convicted, made a point of getting that into the record. And informing the American public that the case was a violation of federal law – grounds for appeal. Keep in mind, cannon couldn’t stop the lawfare steamroller alone.
But I’m just guessing.
Different jurisdiction and with a different circuit court to review would be my guess.
Maybe, but all he needs is to delay until he is inaugurated. Then he could order the report not to be published. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried.
History will likely record Smith as a poster child for the dangers of blind hatred and arrogance. One wonders if he will learn from this experience, or continue on a path to self-destruction.
If smith et al is jailed lots of people will learn to stop fascism
A senseless comment.