Jack Smith is going after Donald Trump’s money too
It’s been widely documented that DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith has a complete or nearly complete criminal case against Donald Trump for stealing classified documents. And Smith appears to merely need the appeals court to sign off on Mike Pence’s testimony before he has a complete case against Trump in relation to election fraud. But it turns out Smith is also going after Trump on at least one more major front.
Last month Smith sent a number of document subpoenas in relation to the post-2020 fundraising that Donald Trump has done while falsely claiming that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen from him, according to a new report from the Washington Post. This isn’t a surprise, really, because it all ties together.
One of the keys to proving Trump guilty of election fraud is to prove that he knew he really had lost when he took the extreme actions he did to try to overturn the election. Trump’s attempt at monetizing these claims is a component in proving that he was making these claims in bad faith. In turn, proving that he was knowingly lying in these fundraising emails is a key component to nailing Trump for financial fraud.
Jack Smith can criminally indict Trump for this financial fraud alongside the charges for election fraud, incitement, or whatever election-related charges Smith has decided to bring. Smith can also go for asset forfeiture of the illegally fundraised money. Either way, Smith is going after Trump’s money.
These subpoenas aren’t some new venture into a new investigation. At this point it’s endgame stuff. You subpoena these certain people in order to put these documents in front of the grand jury while completing the indictment process. It’s a sign of being near the end.
In addition, while we’re just now learning about these Jack Smith subpoenas, they were reportedly issued as much as six weeks ago. As has tended to be the case in this probe, we’re only learning about these things well after the fact. Because it’s being carried out in secret, Smith’s probe has been ahead of the reporting at every step. It’s entirely possible that Smith already has these documents by now, and has already put them in front of the grand jury.
Keep in mind that Jack Smith doesn’t have to bring all his charges against Donald Trump at once. Even as he waits for Mike Pence’s grand jury testimony against Donald Trump in the January 6th case, and pursues this financial fraud case against Trump, Smith can indict Trump in the classified documents scandal the minute that particular case is complete. Best anyone can tell from the outside the classified documents indictment process basically is complete. That’s why Trump keeps publicly freaking out about it. Now, with this financial fraud probe, Trump has yet another legal angle to worry about.
