Jack Smith’s final round
“I want it to be clear that the ultimate decision to bring charges against Mr. Trump was mine. It is a decision I stand behind fully. To have done otherwise on the facts developed during our work would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and a public servant.” These are the words of an extremely honorable man. An honorable man who did the best he could with what he had-and he had a lot. The only reason Donald Trump is not going down is because he won the presidency, and Smith confirms that. Smith would have easily taken Trump down.
Smith’s report lays out everything we already knew about Trump’s actions following his loss of the 2020 election. Interestingly, Trump acknowledged that the false election claims were “crazy” but moved forward with them despite his own knowledge of the facts. What is striking is the sheer lengths to which Trump and his co-conspirators went to disrupt certification of President Biden’s win. Smith discussed how they claimed, “dead people voted,” and he found that the numbers varied from day to day. If 20 people were dead in a state, then there were 20 people, not 40, not 80, not anything else. One word repeatedly used in the report is “deceit.” Everything about what Trump did was deceitful. He knew he’d lost but kept claiming he had won. He enlisted others to risk their positions and reputations to help him, even though some of them also told Trump he had lost. When it came to trying to overturn the 2020 election, Trump became the puppet master, and he had no qualms about violating the law to make it happen. At the same time, Smith had no qualms about trying, convicting, and throwing Trump in jail.
Smith was, in fact, confident that he would have convicted Trump on the evidence that he and his team tirelessly went through. Not only is Smith an honorable man, but he is a determined man. When someone gives him a job to do, he’s not going to half-ass do it. They interviewed more than 250 people and put 55 witnesses before the grand jury. Because Smith is so thorough in his investigations, had Merrick Garland appointed him earlier, Trump would likely not be preparing to take office. The Independent reported that Trump “furiously” lashed out at Smith after the report’s release, calling him “a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide.” First, Smith is anything but a “lamebrain.” He is highly intelligent, and the only reason this case didn’t get to trial was the late hour at which Garland appointed Smith. Second, and irrelevant but must be noted, Trump won the popular vote by 1.5%, hardly a “landslide.”
The lashing out by Trump is typical Trump. He exaggerates everything. Smith, on the other hand, found Trump humorous: “The claim from Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.” Trump may think he has the last laugh, but his punishment is only beginning.[mashshare shares=”false” buttons=”true” align=”left” services=”3″ size=”small”]
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years