Special Counsel Jack Smith abused his power and is interfering in the 2024 election with his massive 165-page memorandum accusing Trump of committing crimes, according to an op-ed in the New York Times Wednesday.
As Breitbart News reported, Smith submitted his memo — four times the typically-allowed length of a legal brief, and well within the Department of Justice’s 60-day window before Election Day — to Judge Tanya Chutkan in D.C.
Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith — a former George W. Bush official who has been critical of Trump — wrote in the Times that Smith had violated legal norms and appeared to be attempting improperly to influence voters.
Goldsmith suggested, further, that Goldsmith owes the public an explanation. He wrote:
The need for an explanation is heightened because this is not the first time Mr. Smith has appeared to disregard relevant department rules. In December 2023 and February 2024, he urged the Supreme Court to hear Mr. Trump’s immunity claim on an expedited basis because of the “imperative public importance” of trying Mr. Trump as soon as possible. Mr. Smith never explained the need for speed.
Many concluded, plausibly, that he wanted his trial evidence in the public realm so that the electorate could make a fully informed decision. This motivation would violate the Justice Department rule that prosecutors “may never select the timing of any action” for the purpose of “giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.” Mr. Smith at a minimum created a strong appearance of impropriety without any explanation in a context where public confidence in the integrity of his decisions is vital.
Some will blame the Supreme Court for Mr. Smith’s predicament. The court declined to follow Mr. Smith’s requests for expedition. And its immunity decision made a pre-election trial impossible and requires a complex analysis by Judge Chutkan to decide which charges against Mr. Trump can go forward. These considerations are irrelevant to Mr. Smith’s duty to comply (and appear to comply) with the relevant rules, which, as former Attorney General Eric Holder once explained, are designed to “maintain the public trust in the department’s ability to do its job free of political influence.”
Goldsmith also suggested the President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris broke norms around the judicial process by commenting on the case and, especially in Harris’s case, attempting to abuse the case for political purposes.
Read the full op-ed here.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
