Jack Smith knows what he’s doing with this Donald Trump indictment
Why did Jack Smith criminally indict Donald Trump on these seven specific charges? Why did he choose this specific time? Why did he indict Trump in a Florida federal court instead of in Washington DC? The short answer to all of these questions – and the only one we really need to keep in mind for now – is that Smith knows what he’s doing.
I feel like I probably shouldn’t even have to point out that a top notch career prosecutor, with a reputation for being savvy and vicious in his prosecutions, does indeed know what he’s doing. But these are the times we’re in. We’re constantly battered with nonsense, on social media and cable news, suggesting that the smart people in charge don’t know what they’re doing, and that they’re hapless cowards hiding under their desks. The narratives are so removed from reality that when the obvious thing happens – such as the DOJ bringing Trump to justice just like Merrick Garland always said would happen – people are caught off guard by it.
But again, these people know what they’re doing. Career prosecutors are far more savvy and knowledgeable than the average bozo on Twitter with a million followers who likes to shout out simplistic magic wand ideas and then bash the people in charge for not using those ideas. Someone like Jack Smith may not get every single move correct during the course of a case, because so many of the strategic decisions are indeed educated guesses. But the vast majority of Smith’s decisions in this Trump criminal case are going to play out in Smith’s favor.
So why did Smith indict Trump in Miami instead of Washington DC? There could be a number of reasons. There’s the fact that cases tend to make it to trial more quickly in the Florida circuit than they do in the DC circuit. It’s a given that Smith chose this timeframe for indicting Trump because he can read a calendar and he knows there’s an election coming up. He’s surely picked a timeframe that allows him to work around Trump’s delay tactics, get to trial, and get a conviction with plenty of time left over before the election.
There’s a lot of pundit chatter right now about Florida being a more politically favorable environment for Trump’s trial than Washington DC. But that’s nonsense talk. The court system has a sophisticated series of procedures for weeding out anyone who’s too biased to be on a jury in a case like this. And there’s a reason why the DOJ gets a conviction in like 90% of the cases it takes to trial: before indicting, it builds the kind of overwhelming case that no jury could find fault with.
There are also the fallback charges. In addition to the Espionage Act charges, Trump has also been indicted for obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators. Those lesser charges have a near-100% conviction rate, and help ensure Trump will go to prison even in the extremely unlikely event that the jury doesn’t buy the espionage charges.
When will Jack Smith bring the January 6th related charges and wire fraud charges against Donald Trump? Again, we don’t know. But once again, we do know that Smith knows what he’s doing. He’ll keep building up those cases until he’s sure they’re winners, and he’ll bring those indictments in the timeframes and venues he thinks are best.
It’s not that we need to treat someone like Jack Smith as an infallible superhero. That’s not what he is. But he is a top tier career professional in his field who, simply put, knows what he’s doing. He’s infinitely smarter and savvier about this stuff than the unqualified clowns on Twitter who have no insight and whose entire schtick is trying to make themselves look smarter and savvier than Jack Smith. Those are the same clowns who insisted all along that the DOJ would never indict Trump. Once and for all let’s stop listening to them.
