{"id":1989424,"date":"2023-08-03T06:48:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T10:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jack-smiths-jan-6-indictments-are-an-attack-on-political-speech\/"},"modified":"2023-08-03T08:54:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T12:54:10","slug":"jack-smiths-jan-6-indictments-are-an-attack-on-political-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jack-smiths-jan-6-indictments-are-an-attack-on-political-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 6. Indictments: Assault on Political Speech by Jack Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/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%2Fjack-smiths-jan-6-indictments-are-an-attack-on-political-speech%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=1989424&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--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>If\u200d Recklessly Lying to Voters Were a Crime&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>If\u2063 recklessly lying to voters were a crime, most everyone in D.C. would be\u200c serving life in\u2064 solitary \u2064confinement at Supermax. But in a liberal democracy, as frustrating as it often is, political misconduct is settled by voters and elections, not \u200bpartisan \u200dprosecutors or rioters.<\/p>\n<p>Feel free to campaign and vote against Donald Trump\u200c if you like. I\u2019m certainly no fan. If Trump \u200bwins in 2024, Congress can impeach \u200dand remove him if they choose. But \u200djust \u2062as there was no \u2063special \u200dset of rules that could keep Trump in the White House in\u2062 2020, there\u2063 shouldn\u2019t\u200b be an exclusive set of rules to keep him out, either.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yet special counsel \u2063Jack Smith\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/us\/579\/15-474\/case.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">indictments<\/a> over Jan. 6 read like they were \u200bcobbled together by a partisan House staffer hopped on Adderall who \u2062perfunctorily tacked on the last-minute legal reasoning\u200b he tripped\u2063 over thumbing through 19th-century case law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Weakness of the \u2064Indictments<\/h3>\n<p>Though <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/08\/01\/dont-indict-trump-for-political-schemes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">numerous<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2023\/08\/this-trump-indictment-shouldnt-stand\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">commentators<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedfrank\/status\/1686701110403428352\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">who<\/a> have an \u2062aversion to Trump have pointed out the weakness \u200dof the\u200d indictments, it\u2019s quite telling how little media-approved \u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2023\/08\/02\/trump-indictment-historians-democracy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">historians<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2023\/08\/02\/trump-indictment-roundup-00109391\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">legal \u201cexperts<\/a>\u201d <em>even bother<\/em> defending the \u2063underlying legal case. Trump\u200b is \u200bevil, a threat to \u201cdemocracy,\u201d \u2062and really what else is there to discuss?<\/p>\n<p>In the Trump-addled politics of \u2064our\u200c age, it is virtually impossible\u2062 for people to compartmentalize the process and the person if\u2064 that person happens to be Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, the precedent\u200d criminalizes\u200d political speech. People keep assuring me the indictments aren\u2019t really about \u200dexpression but rather about defrauding the government. Sorry, the <a title=\"You Can\u2019t Make This Up: Disgraced Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok\u2019s Wife, Melissa Hodgman, Named Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement for the SEC\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/you-cant-make-this-up-disgraced-former-fbi-agent-peter-strzoks-wife-melissa-hodgman-named-acting-director-of-the-division-of-enforcement-for-the-sec\/\">entire case<\/a> is predicated on the things Trump said or believed or didn\u2019t say or didn\u2019t believe. \u2064All \u200dof it\u2062 should be protected under the First Amendment. \u201cSpreading lies\u201d \u2014 prosecutors leaned on the thesaurus\u2063 hard, \u200cfinding about two dozen ways of repeating this fact\u200d \u2014 or entertaining \u2064theories \u200coffered by crackpot \u200clawyers, or trying to convince\u200d faithless electors to do things that people have been trying to\u200c convince faithless electors to \u200cdo for\u2062 a long time, are all \u200cunethical, not criminal.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nowhere do\u200d the indictments\u2063 come anywhere in the vicinity\u200b of making \u200cthe case that\u2063 Trump\u2064 incited \u201cimminent lawless action\u201d on Jan\u2064 6. At least no more than, say, the entire Democratic\u200b Party \u2062incited the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots \u2014 the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2020\/09\/16\/riots-cost-property-damage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">destructive<\/a> in American history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This\u200c isn\u2019t about double standards anymore. Yes, Trump\u2019s Mar A-Lago \u2064classified documents case \u200cis an exercise in \u200cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/10\/none-of-the-medias-concocted-differences-between-biden-and-trumps-document-controversies-are-convincing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">selective \u2064use<\/a> of power for <a title=\"A Texas Democrat Is Running as a Champion of Political Christians. She Pans Them in Her Book.\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-texas-democrat-is-running-as-a-champion-of-political-christians-she-pans-them-in-her-book\/\">political ends<\/a>, but it has a basis in law \u200band recent\u200c precedent. (Not for Hillary \u2064Clinton or\u2063 Joe Biden, but for others.)<\/p>\n<p>In\u200b 2000, after the Supreme Court finally stopped Al Gore\u2019s conspiracy \u200cto overturn the outcome of the\u2064 presidential election, no serious person contemplated throwing him or\u2063 his lackeys in prison. Since that time, however, Democrats haven\u2019t\u200c only been lying about elections, they \u2062have tried to stop\u2063 the certification of \u200bevery national election, as \u200dwell.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Adam Schiff only recently \u200cused a DNC political oppo document to concoct a conspiracy, illegally leaking classified documents \u2014 in carefully curated\u2062 snippets to mislead the country \u2014 to overturn the will\u200d of the American voter. This effort resulted in expensive investigations that defrauded the American people.<\/p>\n<p>The point isn\u2019t that we should imprison \u2064Gore\u2064 or Schiff \u2014 or Stacey Abrams or Hillary Clinton or \u2064Ron\u200d Klain or John Kerry or\u2062 Bennie Thompson or Barbara Lee or Maxine Waters or Ra\u00fal Grijalva \u2064or James Clyburn or Ed \u200bMarkey or Nancy Pelosi, or \u2064many others who have tried\u2063 in various\u2062 ways to <a title=\"It's Happening: Pennsylvania State Legislature Files Resolution -- DISPUTES STATEWIDE 2020 ELECTION RESULTS\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-happening-pennsylvania-state-legislature-files-resolution-disputes-statewide-2020-election-results\/\">overturn election results<\/a> in the \u200cpast. \u200cIt\u2019s \u2063to say that Trump\u2019s\u2063 actions laid\u2063 out in \u2063the indictments aren\u2019t crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously,\u200c Democrats don\u2019t believe precedents will apply to them in the future. And considering \u200bthe way our federal institutions are run these days, they\u2019re probably right. Has a single notable Democrat shown \u2064any hesitancy about prosecuting the leading opposing candidate over speech crimes? I haven\u2019t seen one. The contemporary political left doesn\u2019t view institutions as \u2062tools \u2064of stability, law, \u2063or neutrality. They see them as tools for enacting political ends. And when those institutions fail to do so, they are\u200d useless and\u2064 corrupt. Just look at what they\u2019re doing to the Supreme Court right now.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, my theory is that\u200c Smith doesn\u2019t really expect Trump to end up in prison over any \u2064of these indictments. \u2064As his <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/15\/the-doj-and-special-counsel-jack-smiths-sordid-history-of-weaponizing-the-espionage-act\/\">foray<\/a> into the <a title=\"Republicans not impeaching Biden and his DOJ cronies are contributing to the partisan prosecution issue.\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-who-dont-impeach-biden-and-his-doj-cronies-now-are-part-of-the-partisan-prosecution-problem\/\">partisan prosecution<\/a> of former Virginia \u200bGov. Bob\u200b McDonnell, overturned 9-0 by\u2064 the Supreme \u2064Court, \u2062this case is grounded on a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/us\/579\/15-474\/case.pdf\">boundless<\/a>\u201d reading of \u200bstatute. By then, of course, the \u2064damage is done. The point is likely to make Jan. 6 \u2014 \u200band hysterical claims about American democracy\u2019s near demise \u2014 the centerpiece of the 2024 election.<\/p>\n<p>Granted, allowing Joe Biden\u2019s record to be the\u2064 central issue \u200dof that campaign is potentially disastrous for Democrats. These\u200c indictments, however, create a deterioration of norms that Americans will have to live with long after\u200c the next presidential election.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If lying to voters were a crime, D.C. would have a Supermax full of politicians. However, in a liberal democracy, misconduct is resolved by voters, not prosecutors or rioters. You can campaign and vote against Donald Trump freely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1989425,"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":"Jan 6. Indictments: Assault on Political Speech by Jack Smith","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1989424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Jan 6. Indictments: Assault on Political Speech by Jack Smith","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989424","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\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1989425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}