Following a night of crucial victories across key battleground states, Donald Trump’s path back to the White House is assured after election results came in, and states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia leaned Republican, giving Trump a decisive electoral majority. With his return to office imminent, rumors of significant changes within the Department of Justice are beginning to circulate — particularly regarding the anticipated removal of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Smith, who has been instrumental in prosecuting cases against Trump in recent years, has faced intense criticism from Trump’s supporters and from Trump himself. The former president had previously pledged to remove Smith “within two seconds” of taking office. However, a Fox News report suggests that Smith may not even hold his current position by the time Trump is sworn in on January 20th. According to DOJ insiders, Smith’s tenure as special counsel could conclude sooner, potentially shutting down ongoing investigations related to Trump’s legal issues. [see video below]
The cases overseen by Smith involve Trump’s alleged attempts to contest the 2020 election results, as well as the high-profile documents case, which is currently under appeal after being dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon last summer. The Justice Department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president is also anticipated to protect Trump from future legal issues as he takes office. Analysts believe that these factors could lead to Smith’s departure and the formal conclusion of these cases before Trump is inaugurated. Also, several legal experts have described both cases as political in nature and devoid of legitimate criminal activity on the part of the president-elect.
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Significant cases, such as the local Georgia investigation into Trump’s 2020 election challenge, are also anticipated to encounter increasing hurdles. Led by District Attorney Fani Willis, this case has faced numerous delays and complications over the past year. Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 26 after his felony conviction in New York over charges he intentionally over-inflated the value of his properties to secure better loan terms, but it’s not at all clear he’ll face any jail time at this point.
Days after unveiling new material allegedly linking Trump to the January 6th, 2021, Capitol riots early last month, Smith faced new criticism, including from a CNN legal analyst who warned that his recent actions could jeopardize his entire case related to the J6 events. Elie Honig, the CNN contributor who for months has said that Smith’s case is on thin ice, wrote in the Intelligencer Friday that Smith, having “failed in his quest to try Donald Trump before the 2020 election,” is now “bend[ing] ordinary procedure to get in one last shot, just weeks before voters go to the polls.”
The transgressions committed by Smith are many, Honig writes, but primary among them is his political strategy to “chip away at Trump’s electoral prospects” by any means necessary, even if it means employing supra-legal methods. Having failed to prosecute Trump on the immunity argument, Smith is now relying mostly on “unprincipled, norm-breaking practice[s]” to blemish Trump in the eyes of as many voters as possible, not a jury, according to Honig. A former federal prosecutor himself, Honig pointed out that this submission exceeded the maximum allowable length for court filings by four times. He also noted that Smith’s procedure was incorrect.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.