Below is my column in The Hill on the appearance of Jack Smith in a “No Kings” T-Shirt just days after his testimony on Capitol Hill, claiming to have had no bias or agenda against Trump. Smith must have known that his presence and dress at the “Power to the People” concert would be widely circulated on the Internet. His message was clear, but entirely unnecessary given his record as Special Counsel.
Here is the column:
After his recent congressional testimony, former Special Counsel Jack Smith recently appeared at a “Power to the People Fest” sporting a “No Kings” T-shirt. Aside from a midlife crisis, the most likely explanation is that Smith wanted to send a message, reaffirming his bona fides as an anti-Trump warrior.
It was a Comey moment, but without the seashells.
The Power to the People Fest featured many whom Smith has long cultivated in the “Democracy-is-Ending” crowd. The organizers billed the event as “working to restore and strengthen democracy” and featured some of Trump’s loudest critics.
The top billing went to Bruce Springsteen, who has lately turned his concerts into anti-Trump rave sessions, including comparing Trump officials to “Gestapo” and calling the administration “treasonous.” He continued those attacks at the concert with Smith, denouncing Trump as “lawless” and this administration as murderers.
For his part, Tom Morello, the chief organizer of the rally, has called Trump and his administration “fascists” and leading crowds in chants of “F— Trump.”
And there was Smith in his own “No Kings” tee shirt.
It was a particularly inopportune time, as new evidence on Capitol Hill showed how Smith not only seized phone records of Republican members of Congress, but tracked communications with Trump’s attorney.
Smith has always been undone by his excessive appetite and his habitual failure to respect the limits on his authority. He has a history of losing major cases by advancing excessive and abusive legal claims. This included his stinging defeat in a unanimous Supreme Court decision dismantling his case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
During the Trump investigation, Smith showed that he had learned nothing from his losses. Indeed, former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith with full knowledge of his past disregard for constitutional limits.
Smith richly deserves to be criticized for his unrelenting attack on free speech protections as well as his decision to file a second case focusing on the 2020 election. And the unfolding details of how Smith seized the telephone records of Republican members of Congress, including those investigating his own conduct, only confirm suspicions that Smith wanted to bag Trump at any cost. That included seeking to curtail appeals and rush prosecutions before the 2024 election. Smith failed when Trump chose to run despite the lawfare, and he failed again when Trump handily won the election. But Smith’s obsession was so consuming that he was willing to try Trump right up to Inauguration Day.
The new details of Smith’s investigation should outrage members of both parties. The use of pen registers (to identify the destination of outbound calls and messages) and of trap and trace orders (for incoming) entirely disregarded longstanding rules protecting the legislative branch from such encroachments. And what is particularly alarming is that these searches were obvious fishing expeditions — these were not focused searches on specific wrongdoing, like the searches involving the corruption case against Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) 20 years ago.
In addition to members of Congress, Smith and his team monitored the activities of Trump’s legal defense team, journalists and campaign advisers. That includes now-White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ phone. At the same time, Smith secured a non-disclosure order from the court that prevented mobile carriers from notifying the affected lawmakers that they were being spied on. Thus, as members were looking into Smith’s excesses, they were not told that he was receiving and poring over their telephone records.
The White House Government Transparency Task Force released material this week showing that Smith’s team used an investigation codenamed “Plasmic Echo” to engage in an untethered fishing expedition. Notably, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco signed off on the sweeping seizure with no apparent effort to address obvious constitutional concerns over the right to counsel and Article I powers. Once again, Garland was entirely passive and simply endorsed the recommendations of those around him.
FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a March 2022 memo to Garland and Monaco seeking the attorney general’s approval to launch Plasmic Echo. Monaco added her endorsement before Garland signed off.
FBI investigators traced “Wiles’ phone calls and text messages with at least 21 lawyers affiliated with Trump, numerous campaign staff, political advisors, and at least five journalists from at least February to May 2023.”
This investigation also involved gathering intelligence on Trump’s political action committee, including its donors and campaign expenses.
Smith and the FBI continued the aggressive posture even as agents were balking at some of these means, including those who felt that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was unnecessary to resolve the concerns over the classified material.
Smith has continued to portray himself as unbiased and not motivated in any way by the election: “Anybody who has worked with me and knows me during the course of my career knows that I would not let politics play a role,” he has said.
But shortly afterward, he appeared in his No Kings tee shirt at the Power to the People fest. It was vintage Smith — an almost mocking arrogance in the face of growing criticism over his methods and partisanship.
The irony is that Smith was a better fit as a member of this profanity-spewing anti-Trump crowd than he ever was as special counsel. The pretense was gone, and he was finally in his element. In that sense, he might view this as his coming-out party, but Smith actually came out years ago.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Even if some of this is recycled it’s still nice to read it again since it seems to light a fire under our progressive, anonymous, X, crowd. They seem to start salivating and howling at the mere mention of anything new on Mr. Smith going to Washington. Just a reminder of how off the wall the progressive loon crowd is.
GEB
Smith claims that folks who really know him would confirm that he “would not let politics play a role” in the tawdry experience he calls his “career.” In his view, the reason politics purportedly doesn’t play “a role” is because, leading or supporting role labels aside, political sleaze constitutes the entirety of his act …, lock, stock and barrel.
With apologies, this Beltway arachnid prompts repetition here of the timeless Q&A inquiry: Q: what is the difference between a lawyer like Smith and a catfish? A: One is a slippery, slimy bottom feeder…, and the other is a fish.
Leave it to Professor Turley to spin an issue completely out of proportion and context; it is par for the course.
Jack Smith’s attendance at a concert while wearing a “No King” T-shirt is entirely irrelevant. It does not prove he was biased; rather, it demonstrates that he is a private citizen free to express his personal views now that he is no longer Special Counsel. Neither Turley nor Congressional Republicans can prove Smith harbored an unlawful bias during his active investigations. What is truly remarkable is how the professor completely glosses over the biggest takeaway from the recent congressional hearings: how Republicans were exposed for trying to manufacture a partisan narrative against Smith. Wearing a T-shirt at a concert has absolutely nothing to do with his past performance as Special Counsel.
Furthermore, the outrage over phone records is just a rehash of old grievances. Professor Turley conveniently fails to mention that the collection of these records was entirely legal. Smith’s office did not execute “wiretaps”—they lawfully obtained third-party phone toll records (metadata showing call logs, dates, and durations, but absolutely no communication content) to reconstruct timelines regarding the exploitation of the January 6th violence. This routine investigative step was reviewed by the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section and formally signed off on by a federal judge.
The narrative being spun about White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is a prime example of this misdirection. The recent declassification of the “Plasmic Echo” filesconfirms that her phone was never tapped or monitored in real time. Her call logs were gathered using a routine, court-approved pen register. The claim that her personal conversations were intercepted is a completely manufactured rumor designed to avoid self-examination and actual legal facts. Turley just insinuates wrongdoing without presenting a shred of evidence.
Leave it to crazy George X to spin an issue completely out of proportion and context; it is par for the course.
Anonynous! How you doing buddy? I bet you were waiting for me early.
X! How you doing buddy? I bet you were waiting for me early.
“Waiting for me early?” Just learning English eh X?
But you knew all that. This is Turley recycling content. BTW, not a liberal. But you’re too stupid to understand, mentally and emotionally immature is a better description of you, that criticism isn’t always political. That you automatically tag someone a liberal indicates you are an child and an idiot.
My comment is When? When will those in government, elected and non-elected, the activist judiciary as well be subjected to the laws we the people are subjected? The lies before the public as well as congressional hearings go without punishment. How often did we hear Mayorkas tell us the border was secure, meanwhile our eyes revealed the truth? Today his lies are impacting the lives of every American . So I ask again When?
meanwhile our eyes revealed the truth? Our eyes? Who is “our”. You get to see only what the media wants you to see. You have no special power to see or know truth, but again, you are being feed what they want you see and hear.
Jack Smith is as much a Fascist thug disguised as a prosecutor as any we have seen. His enablers, Garland and Monaco, are no less culpable in Smith’s Fascist political hit job. The only positive is that the American people recognized the unfair actions of far left Fascists and reelected Trump.
Fascist this, fascist that. Got fascist on the brain? Got anything worth telling us about? Fing MAGAots…
Who started the calling people fascists? The Demonic Democrats of course.
Got proof? None in fact. Demonic you call them? That comment says it all about you. Crazy.
Little childish Anonymous has no issue with Smith’s actions because he doesn’t understand them.
Little childish Anonymous has no issue with Smith’s actions because he doesn’t understand them.
So why isn’t he in prison, or at the very least , disbarred?
How many times is Turley going to rehash this Smith nonsense?
@Anonymous
Oh, the irony. The annoying irony. *holds up mirror*.
As long as new information comes to light, I hope.
New? Nothing in the article is new. Wait, he wore a t-shirt to a concert. Definitely treason eh?
Why is it nonsense? This was a political coup against a sitting president of the US and an attempt to keep him off the ballot in a future election. Jack Smith is a political hack that they already knew had been reprimanded for his illegal and unconstitutional activities as a special counsel.
You would be the first and loudest liberal whiner if this ever happened to a Democrat. You are fooling no one.
But you knew all that. This is Turley recycling content. BTW, not a liberal. But you’re too stupid to understand, mentally and emotionally immature is a better description of you, that criticism isn’t always political. That you automatically tag someone a liberal indicates you are an child and an idiot.