Special Counsel Jack Smith was supposed to be basking in glory right now.
In his ideal world, Smith would be hot off a quick conviction of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for the former president’s alleged role in the events of January 6 and attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The special counsel then would have immediately moved his victorious prosecutors to Palm Beach for the summer to prepare for Trump’s second federal trial related to allegedly stealing national defense information and impeding the Department of Justice’s investigation.
That, at least, was the plan.
Instead, Smith (pictured above) is ingloriously hiding from public view as he awaits a key decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on the question of presidential immunity, which will determine whether his Jan 6 case can get to trial in the nation’s capital before Election Day.
But even worse for Smith is his imploding espionage and obstruction case in southern Florida. An increasingly toxic relationship with U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, accusations of grand jury and prosecutorial abuse, and the government’s recent revelations that investigators mishandled and possibly misplaced key evidence threatens to launch Smith into the Fani Willis/Alvin Bragg category —a corrupt, egotistical clown with crashing public credibility and waning support from some of his most loyal toadies.
Smith’s already shaky reputation isn’t the only thing in jeopardy. As I explained here, Judge Cannon has set a mini trial of sorts over the next several weeks that puts Smith, in essence, on the defendant’s side of the courtroom for once; even the leftwing blog Lawfare recently acknowledged as much. “Trump will try to turn the tables, putting prosecutors on trial,” Lawfare’s senior editor Roger Parloff posted last week. “Almost all of Trump’s motions (& defenses) reduce to campaign themes: Prosecutorial misconduct and selective & vindictive prosecution orchestrated by Biden.”
Despite the dishonest spin—after all, Joe Biden’s DOJ not Donald Trump handed down three federal criminal indictments against the presumptive GOP presidential nominee right before an election year—Parloff is correct in concluding Cannon’s aggressive hearing schedule poses a grave danger not just to Smith’s case but the Biden White House, National Archives, and top DOJ officials accused of conspiring behind the scenes to manufacture a documents-related crime against Trump as early as spring 2021.
At the same time, Republicans in Congress are turning up the heat on the special counsel. During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday morning before a vote to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland, Chairman James Jordan (R-Ohio) noted the irony of Smith’s recent disclosure that investigators botched evidence collected during the August 2022 raid of Trump’s estate. “Jack Smith mishandled documents while he’s charging President Trump with mishandling documents. You can’t make this stuff up.”
Jordan also sent a letter to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility seeking an inquiry into Smith’s disclosure that papers are not in the same order as they were following the raid; he also acknowledged that some of the alleged classified documents do not match “placeholder” sheets used by agents—an explosive revelation that could undermine the entire case.
Jordan wants answers. “The organization, maintenance, and storage of the documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago are likely to be important aspects of the Special Counsel’s unprecedented prosecution and President Trump’s defense of the pending charges,” Jordan wrote on May 6. “To that end, legal experts believe that Special Counsel Smith’s filing ‘essentially is an admission of witness tampering.’”
Jordan also asked OPR to look into accusations that Jay Bratt, Smith’s lead prosecutor on the classified documents case, threatened to torpedo one defense attorney’s judicial aspirations if he didn’t get his client to cooperate. Stanley Woodward, who represents Waltine Nauta, Trump’s longtime personal aide and codefendant, has accused Bratt of making “inappropriate” remarks during a 2022 meeting. Noting Woodward’s pending application at the D.C. Superior Court, Bratt, according to a court filing by Woodward, warned, “I wouldn’t want you to do anything to mess that up.”
Translation: Get your client to flip on his boss or your judgeship is gone.
Unsealed search warrants further reveal how Bratt and Smith continued to torment Nauta. The special counsel’s office sought—and received—numerous search warrants on Nauta including seizing his cell phones, searching his apartment and vehicle, and obtaining all of his Google and iPhone data.
For refusing to flip, Smith indicted Nauta alongside Trump on multiple counts including perjury and obstruction. Cannon will preside over a hearing next week on Nauta’s motion to dismiss the case based on Smith’s selective and vindictive prosecution.
Not all Republicans, however, appear to be on board with holding Smith accountable. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has proposed legislation to defund Smith’s office, a move House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes amid claims some Republicans would not support the bill. “I’d love to see Republicans vote against it,” Greene told Steve Bannon in an interview this week. “I would love to see Republicans who are in their primaries right now, who are in their general elections right now, I would love to see them vote against [defunding] the corrupt special prosecutor Jack Smith.”
Defunding, while perhaps a pipe dream, is only one step in holding Smith, Bratt, Garland, and FBI Director Christopher Wray responsible for what’s happened in this unprecedented, compromised, and reckless prosecution. Cannon is doing more than her part in bringing transparency and accountability; House Republicans need to do everything in their power to help her bring the special counsel and his team to its knees.
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Julie Kelly is an independent journalist covering the weaponization of the U.S. Government against her citizens, Follow Kelly on Twitter / X.
