Could Jack Smith Be Charged With the Same Crime of Conspiracy of Which He Accused Trump?

The dismissal of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s two prosecutions of President-elect Trump could herald a new phase in the legal contest between the two men — one where the prosecutor faces prosecution, possibly for one of the same crimes he leveled against Trump.That suggestion comes on X from a legal adviser to Trump, Mike Davis, who is advising the presidential transition. He reckons that “Jack Smith and his office must face severe legal, political, and financial consequences for their blatant lawfare and election interference.” He suggests that those consequences include charging Mr. Smith with the crime of “conspiracy against rights.”Mr. Davis, who calls himself Trump’s “viceroy,” is garlanded by the strategist Steven Bannon as “MAGA warrior.” Politico reports that he was on Trump’s shortlist for attorney general. That went first to Congressman Matt Gaetz and then to the current choice, Pam Bondi of Florida. The president-elect’s son, Donald Jr., calls him “exactly the type of fighter that I’d like to see” in the incoming administration.Mr. Davis, who clerked at the Supreme Court for Justice Neil Gorsuch, has also vowed to charge another of Trump’s foes, Attorney General Letitia James of New York, with conspiracy against rights. Ms. James secured a civil fraud verdict against Trump of more than $450 million, now on appeal before New York’s first review court. Ms. James is reportedly mulling a run for mayor of New York. She crowed after the fraud verdict that while Trump “may have authored the ‘Art of the Deal,’ our case revealed that his business was based on the art of the steal.” Mr. Davis last month told the podcaster Benny Johnson that he has a message for Ms. James: “I dare you to continue your lawfare against President Trump in his second term. Because listen here sweetheart, we’re not messing around this time. And we will put your fat ass in prison for conspiracy against rights.”That was one of the four charges by Mr. Smith in his election interference case against Trump. That statute “makes it unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States.”The statute, which carries a maximum ten-year sentence, was originally enacted as part of the Enforcement Code of 1870, also called the First Ku Klux Klan Act. It empowers the president to enforce the first section of the Constitution’s 15th Amendment, which ordains that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”The law was signed by President Grant, and, as its name implies, was used during Reconstruction to move against the Klan. Mr. Smith’s indictment accuses Trump of conspiring to “injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States — that is, the right to vote, and to have one’s vote counted.”Conspiracy against rights was charged in United States v. Price, the case that centered on the murder of three civil rights activists — Michael Henry Schwerner, James Earl Chaney, and Andrew Goodman — in Mississippi in 1961. As a conspiracy charge, it requires multiple actors. Mr. Smith only charged Trump, but his indictment also discusses six unindicted co-conspirators.That case against Trump will likely never go to trial, though its dismissal “without prejudice” means that it could be refiled at some future date — by another prosecutor. Mr. Smith plans to resign before Trump, who has vowed to fire him “within two seconds,” takes office. Congressional Republicans have also threatened investigations. Mr. Smith owes Attorney General Garland a final report before he takes his leave.

Could Jack Smith Be Charged With the Same Crime of Conspiracy of Which He Accused Trump?

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