Jack Smith just won’t take “no” for an answer
We’ve all been eagerly and excitedly working toward having our first woman president in the United States. She will be a president who doesn’t constantly lie to us, thinking us too stupid to know or find the truth. She will put us and the well-being of this country first. All eyes have been on her, except for two very sharp eyes in the head of Special Counsel Jack Smith. As he tends to do, he has been putting his head down and working out ways in which he can still charge Donald Trump with his crimes despite SCOTUS’s immunity ruling. MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos called Smith’s new indictment “brilliant” and “strategic.”
Instead of wondering how to get around the terrible ruling made by SCOTUS, Jack Smith got to work and rewrote his indictment, which he presented to a wholly different grand jury that still returned a true bill. This situation is anything but ordinary. By tightening up the charges, Smith is making it more difficult for SCOTUS to interfere on Trump’s behalf.
The indictment still contains four counts, but they are counts that fall outside of the SCOTUS ruling. Smith has removed all references to Trump’s attempts to weaponize the DOJ to help him and/or install a new attorney general. These actions weren’t within the confines of his job either. The DOJ is an independent agency that runs without interference from the sitting president. Of course, should Trump win the presidency, he wants to take that independence away from them, which is despicable. The DOJ should remain free to prosecute as it sees fit, but since Trump has been at the root of their investigations, he hopes to ensure it never happens again. If, however, Kamala Harris wins, all bets are off. Perhaps Smith is preparing for that eventuality.
The Hill looked closely at the new indictment and noted some of the more striking differences. Smith no longer refers to Trump as “the 45th president of the United States.” He refers to him as “a candidate for office.” While some of the wording may have changed, little else about the charges has changed. As mentioned earlier, he removed all reference to Trump’s DOJ machinations. He also changed the wording with respect to January 6, referring to everything as “Trump’s campaign.” That makes clear that Trump was operating as a candidate and not as president of the United States. Indeed, his presidency was over. Smith specifically points to the fact that Trump’s rally was no more than Trump “giv[ing] a campaign speed at a privately funded, privately organized political rally.”
Smith makes several other changes in wording to point out that Trump was acting as a candidate and not the president, but ultimately, what Smith has done is made things easier for Judge Tanya Chutkan. When she holds a hearing on the issue next week, these changes should make it easier for her to decide what falls under immunity and what doesn’t. Smith is not taking “no” for an answer respecting Trump’s crimes. He has every intention of prosecuting this case.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years