{"id":1946646,"date":"2023-06-14T07:17:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T11:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-arrested-house-gop-takes-aim-at-special-counsel-jack-smith\/"},"modified":"2023-06-14T07:19:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T11:19:43","slug":"donald-trump-arrested-house-gop-takes-aim-at-special-counsel-jack-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-arrested-house-gop-takes-aim-at-special-counsel-jack-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"House GOP targets special counsel Jack Smith after Donald Trump&#8217;s arrest."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdonald-trump-arrested-house-gop-takes-aim-at-special-counsel-jack-smith%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1946646&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Former President Trump Indicted: Special Counsel Jack Smith Thrust into Political Spotlight<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>Jack Smith has kept a low profile since he was tapped in November to investigate Donald Trump as special counsel. But the Thursday indictment of the former president has thrust Smith into the political spotlight, opening the floodgates to a wave of GOP attacks that until now had mostly been reserved for top leadership at the Department of Justice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>House Republicans&#8217; Animosity Towards Smith and the Investigation<\/h3>\n<p>House Republicans have been livid since Attorney General Merrick Garland took the unprecedented step in August of approving a raid on Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago home in search of classified documents he kept after leaving office. His appointment of a special counsel three months later did nothing to ease concerns that the move was politically motivated. The GOP has used its majority power in the House to investigate Garland, both over the documents case and a broader perception that the agency is persecuting conservatives. Those efforts have only intensified since the Justice Department charged Trump with concealing the files from investigators.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, doubled down on his demand that Garland hand over records related to the search of Mar-a-Lago in a letter sent one day after the indictment. But even before Trump was charged on dozens of counts, including obstruction of justice, in the classified documents case, Jordan was shifting his scrutiny to Smith. Jordan sent a June 1 letter asking Garland how many FBI employees were on Smith\u2019s team and whether any of them had previously investigated the former president. Just days later, he requested a memo outlining the scope of Smith\u2019s work. The requests may just be a preview of what\u2019s to come in House Republicans\u2019 oversight of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/historic-significance-of-georgia-senate-contests\/\" title=\"Historic Significance of Georgia Senate Contests\">special counsel investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan could call Smith to testify before his committee, a request the DOJ is unlikely to comply with. His colleagues are even discussing a push to defund the special counsel\u2019s office itself. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), one of Trump\u2019s most ardent defenders in Congress, introduced a bill on Monday to remove the funding in this year\u2019s appropriations bills. \u201cEverything is on the table,\u201d Jordan told CNN on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The animosity from House Republicans mirrors that of Trump, who laid into Smith in a Saturday speech from Georgia denouncing the prosecutor as \u201cderanged.\u201d \u201cAnd he\u2019s a big Trump hater; openly, he\u2019s a Trump hater,\u201d Trump said of Smith, who is a registered independent.<\/p>\n<h3>Smith&#8217;s Defense and Investigation<\/h3>\n<p>Smith defended the investigation on Friday, delivering a brief statement to warn the public about the \u201cscope and the gravity\u201d of the charges against Trump. But his investigation is just one part of what conservatives see as a larger plot to take down the former president. Smith is also probing Trump\u2019s effort to overturn the 2020 election in parallel with a similar investigation in Fulton County, Georgia. And a Manhattan prosecutor issued Trump&#8217;s first indictment two months ago in a case alleging he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-indictment-in-stormy-daniels-hush-money-payment-investigation-imminent\/\" title=\"Trump indictment in Stormy Daniels hush-money payment investigation 'imminent'\">falsified business records<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say it\u2019s a tangled web of Trump\u2019s own making and that the former president is not above the law. But his defenders note that the federal charges come at a politically fraught time, with Trump the odds-on favorite to compete against President Joe Biden, embroiled in his own documents scandal, in 2024. The former president\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-arrested-house-gop-takes-aim-at-special-counsel-jack-smith\/\" title=\"House GOP targets special counsel Jack Smith after Donald Trump's arrest.\">poll numbers spiked<\/a> after his first indictment as Trump railed on what he called a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/are-the-charges-brought-against-the-trump-organizations-cfo-part-of-a-witch-hunt-experts-weigh-in\/\" title=\"Are The Charges Brought Against The Trump Organization\u2019s CFO Part Of A Witch Hunt? Experts Weigh In\">political \u201cwitch hunt<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Background on the Investigation and Political Climate<\/h3>\n<p>The Republican Party has become captured by Trump\u2019s own distrust of the Justice Department since then. The percentage of GOP voters with a \u201cpositive view\u201d of the FBI has dropped by more than 20 points over the last decade. The House GOP has not only embraced that skepticism but now holds outright hostility toward the agency. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) vowed to \u201chold this brazen weaponization of power accountable\u201d following Trump\u2019s indictment and has even toyed with the idea of slashing funding for the construction of a new $4 billion headquarters for the FBI. House Republicans have locked horns with the Biden administration since assuming power in January, but the most dramatic clash yet came earlier this month when McCarthy threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress over the agency\u2019s failure to turn over a document alleging Biden was involved in a bribery scheme.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s against this backdrop that Smith is conducting his investigation into Trump. The special counsel, a career lawyer with the Justice Department, is well acquainted with prosecuting politicians and other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ilhan-omar-other-leftists-distract-from-capitol-attack-by-focusing-on-gun-control-and-racism\/\" title=\"Ilhan Omar, Other Leftists, Distract From Capitol Attack By Focusing On Gun Control And Racism\">high-profile figures<\/a>. He led the agency\u2019s Public Integrity Unit from 2010 to 2015. But the case could not be more politically charged or public. Trump has even attacked Smith&#8217;s wife over it. The former president appeared for his court date in Miami on Tuesday afternoon in what Smith hopes will be a speedy trial. But the case is not expected to conclude before the presidential election in November of next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since being appointed as special counsel to investigate Donald Trump in November, Jack Smith has maintained a low profile. However, the recent indictment of the former president has brought Smith into the political spotlight, resulting in a barrage of GOP criticism that was previously directed at senior leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1946647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[5175,9130,4657,6203,3653,7317,7608,7262,4841,3794],"class_list":["post-1946646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-arrest","tag-counsel","tag-donald","tag-gop","tag-house","tag-jack","tag-smith","tag-special","tag-targets","tag-trumps"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1946646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1946647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1946646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1946646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1946646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}