Former President Donald Trump can expect to fight impeachment efforts again pending a second term this November.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 165-page report unsealed Wednesday is the Steele Dossier 2.0, an anonymously sourced manifesto compiled to warrant deep state investigations into former President Donald Trump with the ultimate aim of tossing him out of the White House.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan allowed the report to be filed last week after Smith submitted an updated indictment in response to new case law regarding presidential immunity. The Supreme Court ruled this summer that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts in office, forcing the Department of Justice to recalibrate its case against the Republican presidential nominee. Earlier this month, however, Judge Chutkan acknowledged the case would likely go to trial well after the election, and possibly after the start of the new administration.
The summary of the evidence of the former president’s alleged crimes related to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, represents Smith’s final Hail Mary to convince Americans of Trump’s guilt — even as voters are already turning in ballots. The report, filed and made public within 60 days of an election, serves no legitimate legal purpose, as the special counsel desperately attempts to thwart Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
“Smith was clearly eager to get this out before the public despite Justice Department policies that encourage prosecutors to avoid acts that would be viewed as trying to influence an election,” wrote George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley on X.
“In some ways …” wrote former prosecutor and National Review Editor Andrew McCarthy, “Smith’s public submission is better than a trial.”
Trials are messy and unpredictable; prosecutors’ written descriptions of what they hope to prove are often compelling and damning. That is why, at a trial, the judge routinely instructs the jury that an indictment and proffers by a prosecutor are only allegations; they are not evidence, they are not subject to cross-examination, and they prove nothing. Here, by contrast, there will be no cautionary instructions.
As Election Day draws near, “Smith’s allegations will be used by Democrats and repeated by the media as if they are established fact, the conclusions of a searching, exacting probe by a Justice Department special counsel.”
If Trump were to win, Smith is certain to continue the deep state lawfare campaign even after the election, likely challenging any effort for the president to pardon himself. In other words, Smith’s persistent prosecution laid out in the 165-page filing is the Democrats’ “insurance policy” against another Trump presidency.
The Democrats hatched plans to impeach Trump on day one of his presidency, and formally conducted a second impeachment trial by the time he was out of office. There is no evidence to suggest the next four years will be any different. Only this time, Trump’s opponents are starting with three criminal trials already underway, in D.C., Georgia, and New York (where a Manhattan jury already voted this year to convict the former president). Democrats are only planning to escalate their legal crusade against Trump after the election, as is made clear by Smith’s political 165-page report.