Tag: Jack Smith

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Crime Donald Trump Elections

New Court Filing From Jack Smith Is The Worst Possible News At The Worst Possible Time For Trump

A filing made late Friday by Special Counsel Jack Smith is terrible news for failed former president Donald Trump, especially since he’s right in the middle of trying to win the 2024 election and doesn’t need more negative publicity with his poll numbers already tanking.

The 10-page filing contains one line in particular which should send a chill up Trump’s spine, Politico reports.

Smith notes in the filing that he is willing to proceeed with the case “promptly at any time the Court deems appropriate,” and it also includes a line that will worry Trump and his attorneys, according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, who appeared on MSNBC to discuss the matter.

“There is one what I would call money line, and it’s on page two,” Kirscher began.

“Here is what I would call the money line: [Smith] says that the government, the prosecutors propose that it will file a brief in which we will explain why immunity does not apply to the categories of allegations in the superseding, the new indictment … ‘or additional unplanned categories of evidence that the government intends to introduce in trial and will put in this brief.'”

“What does that mean?” Kirschner continued. “Jack Smith just said, ‘Judge Chutkan, I’m going to put lots of other information and evidence about Donald Trump’s crimes and conduct so you have it all. So you can make a decision about whether each thing Donald Trump did was official or unofficial, might enjoy immunity, or should not enjoy immunity.'”

While the Supreme Court did indeed give Trump some immunity with a 6-3 ruling handed down in July, Kirschner explained, that immunity isn’t absolute and the high court made it clear individual judges will be left to decide what is covered by presidential immunity.

“What remains to be seen is when will Judge Chutkan say ‘okay, we’re going to litigate this issue. I want the briefs.’ Will they be September, will they be October?” Kirschner said. “Because those briefs, according to what Jack Smith said, are likely to contain a whole bunch of information that the grand jury knows about Donald Trump’s crimes, but that the American people do not yet know about.”

New information and evidence about how Trump allegedly tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election so he could remain in office might prove devastating, especially since voters are already leery of putting Donald back in office.

In other words, the filing from Smith is the worst possible news at the worst possible time and could be what winds up sending Trump to prison for a very long time.

Here’s the video of Kirschner’s MSNBC appearance:

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Crime Donald Trump Elections

Former U.S. Attorney: Jack Smith Can Still Do Tremendous Damage To Trump Before The Election

Even though there’s almost zero chance that any of the federal criminal cases against convicted felon Donald Trump will go to trial before the election in November, Special Counsel Jack Smith can still do tremendous damage to the disgraced ex-president in the months leading up to balloting.

That’s the warning from former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade who appeared on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” this morning and told the hosts, “It is not just the defendant, it is the public that has a right to a speedy trial. I think the more progress he [Smith] could make before president-elect Donald Trump goes into office, the more he can do at the other end.”

“You do not have to go back to a grand jury to remove things from an indictment where they already found probable cause,” she continued. “So he can pare this down to just those acts that he believes are official acts and go for it. Certainly, it will be litigated but the public will have an opportunity to see what the unofficial acts were: Organizing false slates of electors, pressuring state officials to flip the outcome of the election, and exploiting the chaos at the Capitol on January 6 to try to press legislators to delay the certification.”

McQuade added, “All of that, I think, is entitled to a public hearing. Of course, also the documents case out of Florida. Judge Aileen Cannon has made no effort to act with urgency. — no reason that case can’t proceed all the way through January to see how much progress they make.”

Every new detail Smith exposes in the months before Americans go to the polls could prove damaging to Trump’s already shaky prospects of winning a second term as president. And in an election that’s already expected to be close, those details could be a giant albatross for him.

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Crime Donald Trump January 6

Jack Smith Has Obtained ‘Powerful’ New Evidence That Proves Trump’s Intent On Jan. 6

New recordings obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith regarding efforts by the Trump administration to block certification of the 2020 election provide powerful new evidence that prove failed former president Donald Trump’s intent to commit criminal acts, according to legal experts.

The recordings, which were first made public by CNN this week, suggest that Trump and those allied with him flew fake elector ballots to Washington D.C. so they could replace the real ballots with ones that would be favorable to the disgraced ex-president.

Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail.

So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress, to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification.

The operatives even considered chartering a jet to ensure the files reached Washington, DC, in time for the January 6, 2021, proceeding, according to emails and recordings obtained by CNN.

The recordings are of Trump-aligned lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who devised the fake elector scheme and is now cooperating with prosecutors.

Former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams had this to say about the recordings:

“It’s one thing for a jury to read a transcript or even hear someone talk about things they heard somebody else say, it is another thing to hear voices to have sort of an evocative effect, that is more valuable and powerful.”

The tapes, Williams continued, “could be introduced as evidence showing the state mind of not just of the former president, or people around him who knew what they were doing and attempting to take all efforts to get these fake or alternate — their argument is — ballots to Washington, D.C.., it can speak to intent.”

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen concurred with Williams.

“And the reason those details about the elaborate plan to get all the materials to Washington for Jan. 6 matters so much is they go directly to the intent here.”

He added, “This wasn’t just, as it started out, a preventive measure in case Trump won court cases,” Eisen said. “This was an active alleged conspiracy to have Mike Pence and Congress block the rightful winner of the election from taking office, and Jack Smith has said that that is a criminal conspiracy. And it’s hard to understand how lawyers and other professionals couldn’t see why that was wrong.”

With each day, new and damning evidence comes to light that will help the special counsel make the case against Trump, who is reportedly terrified that he will indeed be found guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison.

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Crime Donald Trump

Jack Smith’s Latest Move Could Expose Trump To A ‘Perjury-Fest’: Legal Expert

On Wednesday, Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion with the federal court in Washington, D.C. that could put failed former president Donald Trump in the position of having to abandon one of his main defenses or expose him to a “perjury-fest,” according to former federal prosecutor Harry Litman.

Smith’s motion seeks to block Trump or his legal team from using conspiracy theories to minimize the ex-president’s legal exposure. But it has a much larger impact, Litman noted on Twitter.

“This argument is in contrast to the balance of the motion, which is trying to keep Trump from introducing irrelevant testimony, such as the claim that the prosecution is just a political attacked by the deep state. Even if that were true.”

In other words, Smith has covered every base and is closing the net around Trump. He knows how the former president is fond of lying, but if Trump does that under oath, he’ll seal his own fate. And if he tries to use other bogus defenses, the special counsel also has those avenues covered, too.

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Crime Donald Trump

Jack Smith Now Has The Sort Of Evidence Against Trump That Juries ‘Eat Up’: Legal Expert

A recording of failed former president Donald Trump and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel is exactly the sort of evidence that juries “eat up” and will be a major part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, according to MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.

Cevallos was asked about the tape, which came to light last week, by MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire and he noted, “There was a lot of talk this last week about, well, could this expose him to liability in a Michigan court? Maybe. But far more interesting to me, having defended federal criminal cases, I can tell you federal court is not a fun place to be for a criminal defense attorney because the government is very good at what they do.”

“If I’m the government I’m thinking they’re looking at this Michigan evidence as what we call 404-B, but all it is is prior bad act evidence that sometimes under certain circumstances can come into a prosecution,” he continued.

“So if I’m Jack Smith, maybe you look at that Michigan evidence or any evidence from any other state and bring that in as evidence in your D.C. court case and say, ‘Look, this is what he was doing elsewhere, this was not a mistake. This is his modus operandi. This all should come in,’ and it can be devastating evidence,” he added. “I can tell you personally that bad act evidence that somebody did something else bad somewhere else is devastating and juries — they eat it up.”

Trump can try and deny that he played an active role in the plot to steal the last presidential election, but his own words and actions condemn him beyond a reasonable doubt.

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