Jack Smith: The Three-Time Loser

American Thinker 

Poor Jack Smith. In 2012 his prosecution of former U.S. Senator John Edwards failed spectacularly. Smith claimed that Edwards “knowingly and willfully” took campaign donations that were actually designed to cover-up an extramarital affair. Jurors were not convinced and Edwards was not convicted.

Next, Smith went after Gov. Robert McDonnell. This time he was able to secure a conviction for 11 counts related to public corruption. However, the case was dismissed by a unanimous Supreme Court because, as Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, the court could not accept Smith’s “boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute."

Smith struck out for a third time with his failure to convict candidate Donald Trump. That case included three major claims, and each comprised a patchwork of faulty assumptions and assertions.

1. Claim: Trump incited a riot

Jack Smith needed a riot. Without one, there would be no public support for prosecuting a former president. But that was a major problem for Smith because there was zero evidence linking President Trump to the January 6th violence. To the contrary, there was powerful evidence showing that Trump tried to encourage peaceful conduct -- especially in the three days prior to January 6th.

Although Trump told the crowd at the Ellipse to be “peaceful and patriotic,” he had already taken powerful steps to promote peace.

The sworn testimony of General Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller clearly prove that Trump had no violent intentions. (See report of House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.)

GENERAL MARK MILLEY, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: (1/3/21) “The President just says, ‘Hey, look at this. There’s going to be a large amount of protesters here on the 6th, make sure that you have sufficient National Guard or Soldiers to make sure it’s a safe event.’....I don’t care if you use Guard, or Soldiers, active duty Soldiers, do whatever you have to do. Just make sure it’s safe.”

CHRISTOPHER MILLER, ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: (1/5/21) “The President commented that they were going to need 10,000 troops the following day...” Miller (a critic of President Trump) later stated that he ignored Trump’s directions: “There is absolutely no way I was putting U.S. military forces at the Capitol, period.” 

If Trump was trying to incite violence, why was he strongly urging his subordinates to maintain peace?

2. Claim: Trump planned to submit “fraudulent slates of presidential electors.”

Smith claimed that Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to create “fake” slates of electors that would be used by Mike Pence to steal the election victory from Joe Biden. That is nonsense.

If Trump had a plan to get Mike Pence to accept phony slates of electors, that plan was already discarded before January 6. Instead, the strategy was to convince Pence to delay the certification date.

On January 5, 2021, several Republican state legislators sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, requesting a 10-day extension of time to certify the election. They would use the additional time to investigate election issues.

Trickery was not involved, and the slates were not “fake.” None of them had been signed by a state executive, and none had a state seal. Although the alternative electors signed their names on these draft documents, the essential signature of the governor (or Secretary of State) was absent in each case. In other words, they were only unused draft documents.

These distinctions become clear in Figure 1, where a photo of Arizona’s so-call “fake” certificate is shown on the left, and the final certificate is on the right. Who could possibly confuse the two documents?

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

However, there is one slate of electors that truly was deceptive. It is the one used by Democrats during the Kennedy/Nixon election. Unlike the 2024 slate of certificates, the Kennedy/Nixon slate falsely claimed that it came from the “executive of the state,” who was, effectively, Hawaii’s governor. (See red underline in Fig. 2.)

In the end, V.P. Mike Pence wisely rejected the call for an extension. Additional investigations at the state level would not have changed the election results because the swing states were mostly controlled by Democrats and NeverTrumpers.

Jack Smith had no basis for charging people with conspiracy to use “fake” electors. The “fake” electors were simply names on draft documents that were never employed.

3. Claim: Trump knew there was no fraud in the election?

Each of us, including the president, has a First Amendment right to express his or her opinion, whether that opinion is correct or wrong. For Smith, this was a huge problem, which he tried to solve in the following way: His strategy was to claim that Trump was only pretending that he won, in order to create a riot. It was a ridiculous claim for which there was no evidence.

After reviewing 13 million pages of evidence, and after interrogations of hundreds of people, Smith could not produce a shred of evidence showing that Trump secretly knew he lost the election. It is nowhere in the indictment, in Smith’s “Final Report,” or in the 13 million pages of evidence obtained by the Trump defense team. I was part of a large defense team that reviewed the evidence extensively.

It is true that Smith identified people who told Trump there was no significant fraud. However, those statements proved nothing because there were many other people who told Trump the exact opposite.

Why would Trump assume that he had lost when there was significant evidence of fraud of two types? 1) specific ballot corruption and 2) violations of election rules and audit standards.

An example of specific ballot corruption was the complete inability of the PA Secretary of State to match 121,000 votes to registered voters. Another example was the manipulation of thousands of ballot images in Georgia.

On the other hand, there were violations of election rules and standards that included findings such as these:

• Failure to maintain required videos of ballot drop boxes
• Failure to review voter signatures in Michigan and Georgia, as required under state law
• Failure to maintain required “chain of custody” documentation
• Failure to investigate specific claims of fraud (e.g., the report of 35,000 phony ballots in Pima County Arizona or the allegations made by multiple postal workers).
• Failure to obtain legally-required ID from thousands of voters in Wisconsin
• The processing of ballots received after the legal deadline

Democrats claim that these matters were adjudicated by judges, however, 66 percent of court cases were dismissed on the basis of process arguments (e.g., lack of standing, laches, jurisdiction).

New Issues to investigate

In recent days, House investigators have raised additional concerns regarding Jack Smith and his prosecution of President Trump. These must be pursued:

• Why did Jack Smith want the court trial to begin just five months after the indictment? It would be impossible for Trump’s lawyers to review 13 million pages of evidence in five months. That would be 85,000 pages per day!
• Why was Smith secretly tracking the telephone calls of several high-ranking Republican officials?
• Why did Smith consider Speaker Kevin McCarthy to be a flight risk?
• Did Smith ignore federal guidelines regarding the prosecution of government officials shortly before an election?
• Did Smith take his oath of office only after working for 10 months on the case?
• In the indictment, Smith lists six co-conspirators, yet Trump was the only person charged. Why?

Incredibly, this case was dismissed without prejudice. Is it possible that Smith wants to be a four-time loser?

Podcast thread for Jan 27

 

So tired of this cold weather.

Democrats Want Blood and They Aren’t Ever Going to Stop

Townhall 

Whenever some post-digested food hits the fan, some adult comes forward and calls for cooler heads to prevail. Then, shortly thereafter, those heads do prevail and people calm down. Not anymore. Those heads not only don’t cool down, they’re empty and have no concern for how heated they can get. Democrat activists are now in a frenzy. Their leadership is afraid to try to calm down – they’ve gotten blood on their hands and can’t stop now, lest they become the target of the wrath they’ve unleashed.

Rage is a drug, and the radical left is as addicted to that as they are porn and not showering. At this point, there is no way for the leadership in the Democrat Party to turn down the heat without being burned by it. So, if you’re waiting for the adult in the room to come forward and, well, be an adult…don’t hold your breath. 

These leftists have established an extensive and intricate web of communication across Minnesota, the country and around the world to manipulation the weak minded into action, up to and including suicide by cop.

“Alex Pretti had every right to carry his gun to protest ICE,” the drones scream. Sure, he did. But was it smart to do? To tuck a pistol into your waistband before getting into a physical confrontation with officers is not smart. 

“He was just defending a woman!” they insist. So what? They were ordered to back up and did not. They were then physically moved by ICE agents. That is not a cue to push back, unless you’re a moron. And if your confrontation turns physical and you’re carrying a firearm, you’d be well to let them know that and put your hands up without fighting them. Because once the fight starts, and they know you’re armed, you have stupidly elevated the tension.

Then again, we aren’t dealing with bright people. Why bring a gun in the first place? What was the plan there? Or the “protester” who decided to pick up a flash bang before the “bang” part and lost a good chunk of their hand because, well, the “bang” part. 

These cosplay social justice warriors who suggest “mobbing” ICE, which is code for “kill them,” think they’re doing something good. Or, usually more accurately, they think they’re convincing someone else to do something good (don’t really see footage of them out there doing what they encourage others to do – is it still murder if you inspire someone else to commit it at a protest you’re several states away from?)

You also have these idiots comparing people rioting in favor of illegal aliens with the Holocaust, which makes you realize just how failed the public schooling in this country is. Then again, when the political leadership and power elite of your state are integral in organizing this human sacrifice ring, and you still vote for them, you might just be too dumb to care. 

It makes the cries from the cannon fodder a little hollow when you come to the realization that the “action” for which you signed up is to literally be that fodder. 

I mean, how dumb must these people be, and how willing to do whatever ordered (hmm, there’s a historical analogy to be made about people willing to follow any orders, isn’t there?) by people so devoid of historical knowledge or indifferent to the reality of history as to compare illegal aliens being deported to Anne Frank? You can see why Tim Walz’s kids are unstable.

Do you think Walz cares? Do you think any of these leftist politicians or activists actually care about Renee Good or Alex Pretti? They do, but only insofar as their deaths are the type of publicity these groups can’t buy and seem created to inspire and exploit.

You really have to have forgotten 9/11 to think immigration enforcement is “terrorism” and I don’t really have a lot of sympathy for people dumb enough to buy into it. And, honestly, if illegal aliens are concerned about being deported, good! 

Democrats could easily turn down the heat here by simply agreeing to call ICE when they have a criminal illegal alien in their custody, but they won’t. They’d rather release them into the general public to be free to commit more crimes. If protecting them and the illegal aliens in their orbit (as those are the people “swept up” in enforcement to go get them), normal Americans are not on your side. If you consider a domestic abuser or child sexual predator your “neighbor” with no concern for their victims and are willing to be cannon fodder for politicians and their protection, well…

Democrats have always been violent – from the Civil War to the terrorist bombings in the 70s – and there is no reason to expect them to change now. Blood benefits their cause in a way a drum circle and chanting never could; and in a way any attempt at an honest discussion of what they want politically never would. They can’t convince people to their side, so they try emotional manipulation and lies. Blood helps in that emotional appeal; they benefit from it so there is every reason to believe, even if things calm down in the short term in Minnesota, that more blood is coming. It’s just a matter of them finding the opportunity for it and the suckers to offer it up, willingly or not.

Minnesota Shows Why the Left Will Win America’s 2026 Civil War

American Thinker 

The United States is facing an existential threat. My guess is this summer will be the most violent, damaging domestic summer since the Civil War. And I predict the left will win and come out victorious on the other side. They will, after winning this new civil war, seek to eliminate the last vestiges of republicans.

I use a small r because while some Republicans are true republicans, most are not. And when the left wins the war, those RINOs are going to “work with” Democrats to create the illusion that America is still a republic, but it won’t be. They will use every tool available to silence dissent, take control over virtually every sector of American life, and they will implement rules so that America becomes a one-party nation.

Now I say all of this with the great hope that I am wrong, but I don’t think I will be.

The cowardly Republicans are going to cave in every conceivable manner in order to try to forestall a civil war. At every level, they are going to give in to the left, they are going to “compromise” their principles, and they are going to betray their voters and our Founding Fathers.

And I mean that at every level in every branch. There is simply no universe where Republicans have the intestinal fortitude to do what’s right in the face of withering attacks from the left.

There is literally no better example of this than election integrity. Nothing animates GOP voters like election integrity. Not abortion. Not welfare fraud. Not guns. (A majority of Democrats support it as well!) Literally nothing gets rank-and-file Republicans more animated in 2026 than elections, but still, the Republicans do nothing about it.

But the catalyst for the Summer of Love circa 2026 (which is already starting) won’t be election integrity per se, but rather immigration. The challenge is that the Democrats have spread 50 million illegal aliens across the entire country. From Maine to California and everywhere in between. This will not be like the Civil War, where the two sides were mostly geographically separated. No, this is going to be like a dozen people thrown into cage matches all around the country. 

And why is this going to be the Big One? Because as we’re seeing in Minneapolis, the left has perfected the business model of professional protest movementeers. They’ve been training for more than 25 years. We saw it in the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, the IMF protests in DC in 2000, Occupy Wall Street in 2011, and the 2020 version of the Summer of Love.

They’ve literally been perfecting it for the last quarter century, and now they are preparing to strike. They are well funded, have a millions-strong army who have been exhorted to hate and violence by a treasonous media, are highly organized, proactive, and most of all, local governments around the country, even some in red states, are on their side.

The result will be a spreading of what we’re seeing in Minnesota as the temperatures rise, and it will be a perfect storm of success for them, regardless of how it turns out. On the one hand, there are countless “observers” who are willing to risk their lives to go out and attack ICE agents because they know that, if they die, they’ll be lionized as freedom fighters who laid down their lives in the defense of innocent children, regardless of the actual facts, and the propaganda value will be immeasurable to their cause.

What’s more, on the off chance that any of the protesters actually get arrested, the local DAs will release them without bail or charges, or federal judges will refuse to sign off on the arrest warrants. None of this, of course, is speculation. It’s all real and happening right now.

Whatever the outcome, the left wins. If their troops are killed while fighting ICE, we’re told that the fascist Trump is guilty of the murder of innocents. If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, he’s a dictator. If a governor calls out the National Guard, it’s a police state. Whichever way it works, the media will spin it as David versus Goliath with the law-abiding citizens and ICE characterized as the Philistines.

Minnesota is only the beginning. It’s likely the left will pursue a multi-month strategy in which they hit multiple cities simultaneously and others in isolation to distract and fragment the administration’s attention.

But the Summer of Love is just one element of the treachery that is going to go on. To appease these leftists, the Republicans are going to bend themselves into pretzels trying to prove that they are not what they are being accused of.

We’ve already seen it. Trump promised to get rid of the Department of Education. Not only is it not gone, but Republicans fully funded it. Countless programs that fund left-wing programs have also been funded, and they’ve refunded programs that Trump cut. Over at Justice, the administration has not made a single arrest related to the theft of 2020, the persecution of the J6ers, or the travesty that was Russiagate.

The reality is, Republicans, and sadly, that includes Donald Trump, are not serious about fixing America, pulling us back from the leftist precipice we have been teetering on for twenty years. If Trump were serious,

• He would put Greenland, Europe, Venezuela, Gaza, and Iran on the back burner—that doesn’t mean ignore them—and invoke the Insurrection Act.
• He would clear out and charge the protesters in Minnesota and would nationalize the National Guard in any circumstances where ICE agents are being targeted with harassment and violence.
• He would immediately begin RICO investigations of the NGOs that are funding these protests.
• He would also investigate left-wing judges who are sometimes operating hand in hand with said NGOs.
• He would ramp up deportations and allow those deported to appeal from their home countries, while freezing all funds going to states that provide benefits to illegal aliens, as well as all states and locales that act as sanctuary cities.
• And finally, he would use every power at his disposal to convince GOP legislators to make the cuts to the budget necessary to choke off the funds going to those behind all of this.

The moment he does the above, he will be labeled a Nazi, a fascist, a tyrant, and more. But the reality is, he’s already being called that, so it doesn’t really matter.

Republicans have been living in a fantasy land where Democrats are honorable people. They’re not. Democrats are in a knife fight, and they know it. They’ve taken to heart Sean Connery’s lines from The Untouchables: “He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!” The only difference is that Elliott Ness was on the side of the good guys; Democrats are not.

Democrats are prepared and are willing to burn down the country to maintain their power. The Republicans need to understand that and decide to stop them, using every tool available. But sadly, Republicans are too worried about being called bad names or having their sensibilities bruised to suit up and man the barricades against the wretched hordes that are the Democrats.

We are at war. The Democrats showed us their playbook in 2020, and they’re rolling it out now. I’d like to think the GOP has the stones to fight that war before it becomes an all-out, hot civil war, but I’ve not seen any proof that such intestinal fortitude exists. I hope I’m wrong.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

 

Welcome to 

The 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓 

Here’s a place to share cartoons, jokes, music, art, nature, 

man-made wonders, and whatever else you can think of. 

No politics or divisive posts on this thread. 

This feature will appear every day at 1pm mountain time. 

Republicans Rewarding Anti-ICE Violence In Minnesota Will Incite More Violence Everywhere

If  Republicans  want  less  chaos, 

they  need  to  stop  rewarding  it.

The Federalist

A 37-year-old man is dead in Minneapolis after a confrontation with federal immigration officers. The details are still unfolding, but one thing is clear: this tragedy did not occur in a vacuum. It happened in an extremely hostile political environment created by Democratic officials and activists who have spent the past year encouraging opposition — including getting shot — to law enforcement.

But what’s even more disturbing is that instead of forcefully condemning the behavior that led to the fatal incident, a number of self-described Republicans are rushing to signal retreat.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt wondered on CNN whether deporting all illegal aliens is what Americans want, remarking, “I don’t think that’s what Americans want.”

Stitt added that the president “has to answer” the question whether ICE should be pulled out of Minnesota and that he needs to “bring this to conclusion.”

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the “tragedy and chaos the country is witnessing in Minneapolis is shocking” and “should raise serious questions within the administration about the adequacy of immigration-enforcement training and the instructions officers are given on carrying out their mission.”

Former Ohio Gov. and failed presidential hopeful John Kasich said “antics in Minnesota are waking up the whole country. You see it’s bothering us, because we don’t see justice and we don’t see fairness. And somehow the administration just doesn’t want to acknowledge this and they think they can just double down on what they’re doing.”

The responses aren’t merely spineless. They are dangerous because they teach the wrong lesson.

Petti’s death, like the shooting of Renee Good, happened in an environment deliberately conditioned by Democrats for violence. Over the past year alone, ICE agents have been physically attacked, firebombed, and ambushed. An ICE facility in Los Angeles was the near victim of a firebombing attack in December. ANTIFA targeted an ICE facility in Texas in July. And in September, a man with “ANTI-ICE” inscribed bullets fatally struck an ICE vehicle, leaving two detainees dead.

Such horrific violence is the result of Democrats’ and the left having spent years — particularly the last year — insisting that immigration enforcement is immoral and implying resistance by any means necessary is justified.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries compared “every single ICE agent who’s engaged in this aggressive overreach” to the “1930s” — a reference to Nazi Germany.

New York Rep. Dan Goldman compared ICE to the Gestapo, saying they are the “Secret police, who are masked, who are intimidating, who are scaring people … with these Gestapo-like tactics.”

Minnesota’s own Gov. Tim Walz said “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets.”

In fact, grassroots activists “‘have suggested … what we really need to do is be willing to get shot’ when visiting ICE facilities or federal agencies, a third House Democrat told Axios” in a July report.

“Our own base is telling us that what we’re doing is not good enough … [that] there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public,” the unidentified lawmaker reportedly said, while another House Democrat told Axios that constituents said “civility isn’t working” and to prepare for “violence … to fight to protect our democracy.”

Meanwhile, the anti-ICE protests that have led to chaos, violence and illegal activity have been met with little pushback from local Democrat leaders.

That is the environment in which Petti and Good’s deaths occurred.

And what makes the moment worse is that some Republicans are validating Democrats’ efforts to create such an environment.They are reinforcing the idea that enough disorder, threats of violence, actual violence, and mob intimidation produces results — which is exactly how you incentivize more of it.

No serious country allows its immigration policy to be dictated by emotional mob blackmail and no serious country would even consider telling its law enforcement to stop enforcing federal law because activists might get upset. And no serious party would ever treat violence or threats of it as a legitimate political tool for shaping policy outcome.

Republicans’ message will not calm tensions but only escalate them. If Republicans want less chaos, they need to stop rewarding it.

They're Scattering: Anti-ICE Leftists Consider Fleeing Country After Signal Chat Got Exposed

Townhall 

They got exposed, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away or stopped. They’re a roach infestation. These leftists in Minneapolis, causing mayhem for our law enforcement, had their secret Anti-ICE chat on Signal exposed, but new ones have been established, and the older ones nuked from existence. 

Still, the chats revealed a coordinated system from which these psychopaths could engage in targeted harassment and assault of federal law enforcement. Reporter Cam Higby dropped this nuke over the weekend, and now they’re scattering. Some said they’re fleeing the country and going to Cuba, which was amusing:

Here are some of the contents from the initial story Higby dropped over the weekend. RedState broke down the mayhem even further, diving into the funding and who was on it. We know that ‘Flan,’ the alleged codename for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, was part of this chat, along with Alex Pretti, the latest leftist shot and killed by immigration officers, which led to the second wave of lefty mayhem in the city. Pretti was carrying a firearm, though he didn't have his proper ID with him*, at this protest, but things went awry, and he was killed. Again, interfering with federal law enforcement operations will lead to dire consequences for the agitator. The Left claims this was another execution. The bodycams from the Border Patrol agents involved are being analyzed.  

Other state Democrats were listed, too, which probably explains why Gov. Tim Walz said he’s open to cooperating with Trump officials on this matter and immigration enforcement. Members of the media, including NPR reporters, are listed in the chat, along with former Walz political operatives: 

You’ll notice emojis next to people’s names. Here’s a key for what those emojis mean.   

The highlighted positions are the most crucial. Most are self explanatory. Mobile patrols spend their entire “shift” searching for suspicious vehicles.    

When they find one they send it to the group so that “plate checkers” can compare with their database and see if it’s a known federal vehicle or if the patrol can make the confirmation so that the database can be updated.  

[…]  

A new group chat for each zone is made each day. The chats are dated, and deleted at the end of each day.   

This is likely to avoid detection, record keeping, and consequences.    

My mid-day, the group chats hit maximum capacity (1,000 people)    allowed by signal and people who are not chasing federal agents are asked to leave to create room for those who are.   

The dispatch calls also reach maximum capacity constantly. I believe it’s 50 people maximum. Which means, at any given time in each small zone, there are 50 people chasing agents.  

[…]  

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE AND LOCAL POLICE ARE COOPERATING.   

Here an “observer” calls out a possible agent but says she’s just out walking her dog so can’t continue on.  

Dispatch called for “backup”   

Also below is a message indicating that local PD may get involved if ICE “hinders public safety”

The FBI is now investigating these chats. 

There is a reported home base for these leftist agitators. That has yet to be revealed. 

*