By Steve BermanJack Smith is like a Dachshund digging for a bone. He will never give up trying to put Donald Trump behind bars. When the Supreme Court struck down some aspects of Smith’s case, that included the former president’s acts in office (because acts of the president done as part of his authority and responsibility in office are indeed immune from a later administration’s lawfare), Smith simply did a word dance.
No longer is Trump “45th President of the United States,” but now he’s simply “a candidate for president of the United States in 2020” in the charging documents. Smith and his staff nonchalantly removed any reference to Trump as president, and recast any interactions with Vice President Mike Pence as a running mate. He presented this dog’s breakfast to a new grand jury, which endorsed the same four charges the Supreme Court previously found defective. We’re expected to believe this; to forget Trump was actually president when the events leading up to January 6th happened.
It’s never been anything but personal for Jack Smith. He wants his conviction–to be the first federal prosecutor ever to successfully convict a former president. Of course, this is nothing new, only a matter of scale. After sitting Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, he was tried for Treason. President Thomas Jefferson himself led the prosecution. His distant cousin, Chief Justice John Marshall, would be the judge (but Marshall was no political toady of Jefferson).
Jefferson twisted the law to breaking, but when the trial hit a jury, the jury acquitted Burr. Jefferson even went so far as to recommend Congress to impeach Marshall for applying the law correctly. This is the same strategy that the Biden-Harris administration has pursued dealing with Trump. They have threatened to “pack the court” and force retirement on Justices, along with special oversight for those who they deem too politically aligned with Trump or other Republicans.
Smith has also called for a federal appeals court to overturn Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of his documents case in Miami. Cannon ruled that Smith’s appointment as a special prosecutor was itself unconstitutional, but that has never stopped the Biden-Harris machine and its bone-digging Dachshund.
What’s next? Even Republicans who have been very critical, even hostile, to the former president, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, have buried the hatchet and come to support the nominee. Kemp is hosting a fundraiser for Trump this week, and promised to lend his political ground operation to the Trump campaign.
Democrats are more organized, and more determined to beat Trump this election than in the past. In 2020, it was about COVID-19. Now, it’s personal. Divisions in the Republican Party and among some who are positively gleeful about an abortion-loving, Israel-wavering, tax-and-spent liberal pair like Harris and Walz, we find many evangelicals and other self-styled conservatives. But I’ve also found some very ardent Trump supporters among college-educated, worldly, even cosmopolitan, business people who see how a Harris administration would be a disaster in every way. Things aren’t always as they look.
Winning at the ballot box is the American way (even if cheating at the ballot box goes on, but not in the giant numbers claimed). Winning by lawfare is also an American tradition, but not a good one.
Next, we will see anyone who supports Trump subject to the same legal targeting they have done with Trump. If Harris wins, watch her go after Elon Musk’s empire with a hammer and tongs. Not just Musk, but anyone who dares to express their support for the former president will fall under the same kind of lawfare practiced by Jack Smith.
Summing up how Democrats see “democracy,” here’s what they think about Mexico’s president’s plan to elect judges instead of appointing them.
Who is committing Treason here?
Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.
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