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Opinion


WHY TRUMP’S SMEAR CAMPAIGN TACTICS WON'T WORK (AS WELL) ON JACK SMITH

It will be harder for Democrats and Republicans — and Trump — to use politics to
undermine this special counsel's conclusions.


Jack Smith in The Hague in 2020.Jerry Lampen / AFP via Getty Images Pool file
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June 8, 2023, 7:58 PM EDT / Updated June 8, 2023, 9:11 PM EDT
By Charlie Dent

Special prosecutors appointed to conduct criminal investigations of potential
wrongdoing have struck fear into the Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush
administrations. Former President Donald Trump has officially been indicted on
seven charges, meaning he could be the latest to fall into that category.

The Iran-Contra investigation dragged on for close to eight years; Ken Starr
pursued Bill Clinton relentlessly in the 1990s, resulting in Clinton’s
impeachment over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; Pat
Fitzgerald pursued the leak that outed the identity of a CIA operative. These
investigations all took on lives of their own, and many questioned if all the
time, money, effort and heartburn were worth it. 

These investigations all took on lives of their own, and many questioned if all
the time, money, effort and heartburn were worth it.

Former President Donald Trump experienced this same sort of investigation over
potential Russian interference in the 2016 election. Robert Mueller’s probe
concluded without criminal charges for the former president. But the legal peril
facing Trump in 2023 feels very different, given the number of legal
entanglements tormenting the former president and audio recordings potentially
capturing his alleged misconduct in his own words.




Much of Trump’s fate currently rests in the hands of a different special
prosecutor. And unlike the indictment in New York involving the Stormy Daniels
and Karen McDougal payments, or the Georgia election tampering matter in Fulton
County, Trump will have a much harder time vilifying Jack Smith. His background
and reputation require no caveats. 

Most recently, Smith had been working in The Hague, investigating war crimes in
Kosovo. Before that, he’d worked as a prosecutor in New York City, the Eastern
District of New York and the Middle District of Tennessee. He’s investigated
everything from gang killings and crimes against humanity to public corruption.



Pre-Trump, the idea that a former president of the United States would viciously
and publicly insult and undermine the prosecutors investigating him would have
been absurd. But this is not a politician — or political movement — that
respects the criminal justice system. Indeed, it’s already clear that, whatever
the merits of the cases investigated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Trump and his allies have found
plenty of angles of attack.



For one thing, both of those prosecutors are elected Democrats, enabling Trump
to hammer them as politically motivated hacks. As an unelected career
prosecutor, Smith is not currently aligned with a political party. Trump can
complain about witch hunts all he wants, but political bias is far harder to
argue with Smith — at least with a straight face. And it should be harder for
both Democrats and Republicans to use politics to undermine his conclusions. 


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OPINIONBIDEN'S RELUCTANCE TO SLAM TRUMP OVER HIS INDICTMENT MAKES SENSE

Trump has also attacked Bragg, Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia
James — who are all Black — as “racists” bent on destroying him. Such rhetoric
is clearly out of bounds. He even called Bragg “an animal.” These smears are
meant to intimidate the prosecutors, their staff and their families. (If Trump
continues down this path of verbal retribution, he could find himself in more
legal peril and be charged with intimidation. How long will judges allow these
sorts of attacks to continue before intervening?) 

Read more

Mercifully, Trump has yet to call Smith, who is white, a racist, but he has not
been kind either. “Terrorist,” “thug,” “criminal,” “monster,” “mad dog psycho”
and “hit man” are all words Trump has vomited forth about Smith. Whatever
benefit Trump believes such attacks may yield in the court of public opinion
will most assuredly not enhance his case in a court of law. There is nothing
like a trial in a federal courtroom to humble the most blustering big mouths.

And unlike with the E. Jean Carroll civil trial, Trump must appear in the
courtroom for criminal trials, where there will be zero tolerance for schoolyard
taunts.



The primary criticism against special counsel investigations is that they wander
too far afield from their original charge and become all-consuming affairs. That
is also not the case with Jack Smith. His investigation, which started with his
appointment by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022, moved
relatively quickly. Now, at least one of the probes is wrapping up
expeditiously. But neither has Smith rushed. The politics and precedent of
charging a former president and current presidential candidate were not lost on
him. And that could go a long way in retaining the attention of the American
people and restoring the public’s faith in the efficacy of special prosecutors
more generally, on both sides of the aisle.

Charlie Dent

Charlie Dent is a former Republican representative for Pennsylvania’s 15th
Congressional District.



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