Stefanik claims DOJ special counsel Jack Smith meddled in 2024 election
House GOP Chair Stefanik from NY demands ethics probe on DOJ’s Jack Smith, claiming he rushed Trump’s January 6 case to sway the 2024 election. Allegations state Smith breached trial ethics and sought an accelerated trial. Stefanik accuses Smith of jeopardizing due process rights and attempting to influence the presidential campaign. Trump’s legal team protested against the rushed trial date proposed by Smith.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is demanding an ethics investigation into Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of attempting to expedite former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 criminal case in order to interfere with the 2024 election.
In an ethics complaint submitted on Tuesday, Stefanik accused Smith of pushing for an accelerated trial in violation of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which the chairwoman argued was a “lawless breach of trial ethics.” The complaint demands an investigation into Smith for possible misconduct and unlawful interference with the election.
“Jack Smith’s actions brought disrepute to the Justice Department and the federal government as a whole, and he should face discipline appropriately,” Stefanik wrote in the complaint, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner. “President Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for President, having won enough delegates to secure the nomination on March 12, 2024. As we will demonstrate, Biden special counsel Jack Smith is attempting to expedite the trial in order to influence the general election in November.”
Stefanik pointed to several instances in which Smith pushed for a trial start date far ahead of the election, accusing the special counsel of failing to apply the law and instead seeking to “get President Trump — and get him before November.”
Smith first petitioned the district court to begin the trial on Jan. 2, prompting pushback from Trump’s legal team, who argued they needed adequate time to review roughly 13 million pages of discovery as well as thousands of hours of camera footage. Smith requested the trial date in August 2023, which would have given Trump’s team five months to prepare.
“Prosecutors bringing a case of this complexity–with so many consequential and novel legal issues to sort out–would normally never seek to bring it to trial within five months,” Stefanik wrote. “The only reason to push for such an early trial date was to work to get the case tried before the November election, and the Justice Department Manual clearly forbids Jack Smith from taking any action on that basis.”
Stefanik also accused Smith of unfairly rejecting a request by Trump to dismiss the trial on the basis of presidential criminal immunity for official acts. Smith declined Trump’s petition for certiorari, claiming there was “a compelling interest in the prompt resolution of this case.”
Stefanik pushed back against that notion, accusing Smith of overriding “the due process rights of a criminal defendant” in an attempt to harm his presidential campaign.
“Jack Smith has not talked about the election in his filings because it is an obviously improper reason to expedite President Trump’s trial,” Stefanik wrote. “Biden special counsel Jack Smith’s actions, however, leave no doubt that the election is driving his timing decisions. No other plausible reason exists for why he is rushing this case against a criminal defendant in a manner inconsistent with the Justice Department’s usual practice.”
The complaint comes as the Supreme Court is set to decide on Trump’s claims of presidential immunity sometime in the next 60 days. Much of the argument surrounded whether Trump engaged in “private” conduct to allegedly subvert an election, which wouldn’t be protected, versus “official” acts that would carry with them protection from prosecution.
If the justices do agree to send the case back to a lower court to weigh which acts were official or not official, it could further delay Trump’s trial as he mounts his 2024 reelection bid.
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This is not the first time Stefanik has gotten involved in Trump’s legal troubles. The fourth highest-ranking House Republican has submitted several ethics complaints against judges involved in the former president’s Jan. 6 Capitol riot case, decrying the trial as being politically motivated.
It’s not yet clear whether the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility will open an investigation into the matter. The Washington Examiner contacted the Justice Department for comment.
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