Jack Smith’s Accusation That Trump Has ‘Corrupted’ DOJ Sets Stage for ‘Likely’ Prosecution of the Prosecutor

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s accusation that President Trump has “corrupted” the Department of Justice is the most explosive allegation yet levied by the prosecutor at the president he twice failed to convict in court.Mr. Smith’s remarks from last month, which were captured on video, came at the Cosmos Club at the District of Columbia. The club, founded in 1878 and headquartered at a building on Massachusetts Avenue, describes itself as “a private social club for men and women distinguished in science, literature, the arts, learned professions, or public service.” The special counsel declared that “We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them.” That appears to be a reference to the pursuit of adversaries of Mr. Trump like the former FBI director James Comey and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. A former director of the CIA under President Obama, John Brennan, is also under criminal investigation.In addition to what Mr. Smith’s takes to be those errors of commission, he also criticized the Trump Administration for featuring a “department that fails to investigate cases because they might uncover facts that are inconvenient narratives the president would like to press.” That refers to the killing of two protesters by ICE at Minnesota in February. The DOJ chose not to investigate the federal officers involved. It instead urged prosecutors to uncover links between the slain protesters and left-wing groups.Mr. Smith contends in respect of that investigation that “There were facts that they wanted to push down and have nobody see because they would interfere with a story that they wanted to tell. I’ve never been in a Department of Justice that would be willing to be complicit in something like that.” A DOJ spokeswoman, Emily Covington, responded to Mr. Smith’s remarks in a statement declaring “I would expect nothing less from Jack Smith.”The prosecutor accuses the 47th president of an “attack on public servants” that is “a byproduct of the attack on the rule of law. It is a central component of it.” Mr. Smith sought to try to convict Mr. Trump for election interference and the retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in the wake of his first presidency.Mr. Smith, who was hired by Attorney General Merrick Garland two days after Mr. Trump announced his intention to retake the White House, professed that “I grew up as a prosecutor in sort of the Robert Mueller mode of prosecutor. I speak in courtrooms. I do not speak on the courthouse steps. I don’t do media.” Mr. Mueller, who also criminally investigated Mr. Trump, recently died at the age of 81. Like Mr. Comey, he directed the FBI.The prosecutor, who served on a Kosovo war crimes tribunal at the Hague before his assignment from Mr. Garland, lamented that his courtroom focus “limits a prosecutor and the department’s ability to explain what it’s doing. You know, if you’re competent and you do have integrity, and you do things independently. If you can’t get the public to know that, that’s really tough.”Mr. Smith’s protestations notwithstanding, he has emerged as an increasingly sharp critic of Mr. Trump. He told Congress in public testimony that he adduced evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Mr. Trump was guilty of a “criminal scheme” to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election. During an appearance at London he declared to one of Mr. Mueller’s former deputies, the MS NOW commentator Andrew Weissmann, that it is “ludicrous” to suggest he was motivated by politics.During an appearance at Harvard Law School last month Mr. Smith reckoned that “what we are seeing today” at the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice “is not normal.” Mr. Smith insisted that “facts matter” and lamented that he sees “traditions of the department being set aside because particular outcomes are wanted.” Mr. Trump has argued that Mr. Smith “destroyed many lives under the guise of legitimacy.”During Mr. Smith’s testimony in January Mr. Trump took to social media to write that “Hopefully the Attorney General is looking at what he’s done, including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me.” Mr. Trump has on multiple occasions called for Mr. Smith to be prosecuted, though on what basis remains unclear. The current acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has signaled with his indictment of Mr. Comey for an allegedly threatening post on Instagram that he is unafraid to launch cases against the president’s adversaries. The New York Times reports that Mr. Smith has come to “believe” that a prosecution directed toward him is “likely.”

Jack Smith’s Accusation That Trump Has ‘Corrupted’ DOJ Sets Stage for ‘Likely’ Prosecution of the Prosecutor

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