Legal professionals slam Jack Smith for latest indictment against Trump: ‘Stretched the law’
Special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice, filed a superseding indictment against Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening.Legal professionals, including George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, former assistant U.S. attorney Andy McCarthy, and former federal prosecutor and former Trump attorney Jim Trusty, slammed Smith for the new indictment submitted in response to the Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.'Going nowhere before the election.'Smith’s latest legal action includes the same four charges he filed against Trump in the original indictment in August 2023 accusing the former president of federal election subversion in the 2020 presidential race. However, this revised indictment, handed down just 70 days before the upcoming election, attempts to address the Supreme Court’s ruling that declared presidents are entitled to immunity for official acts.Trump is also facing three other separate indictments, including the New York criminal trial where he is awaiting sentencing slated for September, an alleged election interference case in Georgia that is stalled in the courts, and the classified documents case that United States District Judge Aileen Cannon threw out. Smith recently filed an appeal against Cannon’s decision. Trusty told “CNN News Central” that Smith’s latest indictment could hit a “huge land mine” because it is attempting to “anticipate how the judge would rule on this official acts quandary.”While the Supreme Court determined that Trump is immune from official acts, it did not outline what constitutes an unofficial versus official act, which will be left up to the lower courts to determine.“So he’s anticipating that, but it’s really interesting because the opinion says, not just that immunized information is not properly before the court at trial, but that it contaminates the grand jury process. If you include that information in pursuing an indictment, that’s a huge land mine,” Trusty explained. “The problem is if he guesses wrong in one instance, like in other words, if he says, ‘oh, the president was consulting Mike Pence as president of the Senate, not as vice president,’ which is part of this new indictment, then if he gets it wrong once, he’s got the same problem.”“He’s got to go back to the grand jury, re-indict for the third time based on this ruling coming from the Supreme Court. So it’s interesting, it’s taking the initiative, but it doesn’t necessarily make it a bulletproof indictment,” Trusty added.Turley claimed that Smith has “always played right up the margin,” noting that “at times he has crossed over.”“He was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court on probably his previous most famous case because he stretched the law, and that has been a signature of his, and I think he’s still doing it,” Turley stated, referring to a case against former Virginia Republican Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife where the Supreme Court ultimately overruled the conviction.McCarthy called the indictment against Trump “lawfare,” speculating that the case “is going nowhere before the election and I don’t think it’s going anywhere before we have a new president.”He noted that regardless of the revised indictment, there is “still going to be a live immunity issue, which means Trump will be able to appeal to the D.C. circuit and the Supreme Court.”Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) told Newsmax on Wednesday that Smith’s new indictment is “just disgusting,” pointing to the fact that the charges were filed roughly two months before the election. He accused the Biden-Harris administration of using any means necessary to win the presidential race.“This is complete election interference, and the American people need to wake up,” Scott said.Trump responded Tuesday to Smith’s revised indictment on social media, arguing that “the whole case should be thrown out and dismissed on Presidential immunity grounds.”He accused Smith of rewriting “the exact same case in an effort to circumvent the Supreme Court decision.”Trump called Smith’s actions “shocking” and an “unprecedented abuse of the criminal justice system.”“This is merely an attempt to INTERFERE WITH THE ELECTION, and distract the American People from the catastrophes Kamala Harris has inflicted on our Nation, like the Border Invasion, Migrant Crime, Rampant Inflation, the threat of World War III, and more,” Trump wrote.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice, filed a superseding indictment against Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening.
Legal professionals, including George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, former assistant U.S. attorney Andy McCarthy, and former federal prosecutor and former Trump attorney Jim Trusty, slammed Smith for the new indictment submitted in response to the Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.
'Going nowhere before the election.'
Smith’s latest legal action includes the same four charges he filed against Trump in the original indictment in August 2023 accusing the former president of federal election subversion in the 2020 presidential race. However, this revised indictment, handed down just 70 days before the upcoming election, attempts to address the Supreme Court’s ruling that declared presidents are entitled to immunity for official acts.
Trump is also facing three other separate indictments, including the New York criminal trial where he is awaiting sentencing slated for September, an alleged election interference case in Georgia that is stalled in the courts, and the classified documents case that United States District Judge Aileen Cannon threw out. Smith recently filed an appeal against Cannon’s decision.
Trusty told “CNN News Central” that Smith’s latest indictment could hit a “huge land mine” because it is attempting to “anticipate how the judge would rule on this official acts quandary.”
While the Supreme Court determined that Trump is immune from official acts, it did not outline what constitutes an unofficial versus official act, which will be left up to the lower courts to determine.
“So he’s anticipating that, but it’s really interesting because the opinion says, not just that immunized information is not properly before the court at trial, but that it contaminates the grand jury process. If you include that information in pursuing an indictment, that’s a huge land mine,” Trusty explained. “The problem is if he guesses wrong in one instance, like in other words, if he says, ‘oh, the president was consulting Mike Pence as president of the Senate, not as vice president,’ which is part of this new indictment, then if he gets it wrong once, he’s got the same problem.”
“He’s got to go back to the grand jury, re-indict for the third time based on this ruling coming from the Supreme Court. So it’s interesting, it’s taking the initiative, but it doesn’t necessarily make it a bulletproof indictment,” Trusty added.
Turley claimed that Smith has “always played right up the margin,” noting that “at times he has crossed over.”
“He was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court on probably his previous most famous case because he stretched the law, and that has been a signature of his, and I think he’s still doing it,” Turley stated, referring to a case against former Virginia Republican Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife where the Supreme Court ultimately overruled the conviction.
McCarthy called the indictment against Trump “lawfare,” speculating that the case “is going nowhere before the election and I don’t think it’s going anywhere before we have a new president.”
He noted that regardless of the revised indictment, there is “still going to be a live immunity issue, which means Trump will be able to appeal to the D.C. circuit and the Supreme Court.”
Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) told Newsmax on Wednesday that Smith’s new indictment is “just disgusting,” pointing to the fact that the charges were filed roughly two months before the election. He accused the Biden-Harris administration of using any means necessary to win the presidential race.
“This is complete election interference, and the American people need to wake up,” Scott said.
Trump responded Tuesday to Smith’s revised indictment on social media, arguing that “the whole case should be thrown out and dismissed on Presidential immunity grounds.”
He accused Smith of rewriting “the exact same case in an effort to circumvent the Supreme Court decision.”
Trump called Smith’s actions “shocking” and an “unprecedented abuse of the criminal justice system.”
“This is merely an attempt to INTERFERE WITH THE ELECTION, and distract the American People from the catastrophes Kamala Harris has inflicted on our Nation, like the Border Invasion, Migrant Crime, Rampant Inflation, the threat of World War III, and more,” Trump wrote.
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Originally Published at Daily Wire, World Net Daily, or The Blaze
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