In his final report, recently resigned special counsel Jack Smith left no doubt that Donald Trump got off on a technicality.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
Whether it’s once-defiant Republicans who are now kowtowing before Donald Trump, news organizations that are bowing before him, business leaders who are lining up at Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring, or even entire countries worried about the economic and military might of the United States, the default approach to the incoming president is appeasement or even subservience.
But the way to deal with a bully is not to hand him your lunch money and hope he doesn’t ask again, it’s to stand up for what’s right and deal with the consequences.
Far too few people have been willing to do so, which is why a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser who staged a coup and shows signs of various mental illnesses will be sworn in as president of the United States next week.
Jack Smith was one of them.
No matter how many times Trump called him names, no matter how often he lied about Smith’s work, the special counsel just went about his job, which was to determine whether the former president tried to illegally overturn the result of the 2020 election and later hoarded highly classified documents at his home.
On the day after the fourth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol that Trump sparked with his Big Lie, Smith popped that bully in the mouth one more time.
In his final report, which was made public early Tuesday morning and should be required reading for all Americans, the prosecutor left no doubt that the only reason the former president is getting off the hook is that his attorneys managed to drag out his two related criminal cases (with an assist from a Trump-appointed judge in Florida) until he won the election.
Then, based on standard Department of Justice (DOJ) practice, Smith was forced to shut down his investigation.
“The Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution,” the special counsel, who formally resigned last week, wrote.
Still, in his report, Smith made it very clear that none of this means that Trump was “exonerated,” as the former president and his allies falsely claim.
“Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the [special counsel’s office] assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” Smith stated.
Anybody who has read the indictments in the case with an open mind would likely agree.
The fact that there was never a trial is one of the saddest chapters in the Trump saga. There is no telling how much damage it will do to the United States that the man who attempted a coup faced no repercussions.
In the end, it might just be Smith (or any of the other prosecutors who charged the former president with crimes), who will end up facing a trial, at least if Trump has his way.
On Monday, the president-elect shared a social media post calling for the special counsel to be disbarred and indicted.
Trump’s DOJ may just try, and Smith seems to know it.
In a letter accompanying the report, he made it very clear that he should be the only target of Trump’s vendetta.
“While I relied greatly on the counsel, judgment, and advice of our team, I want it to be clear that the ultimate decision to bring charges against Mr. Trump was mine,” he wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “It is a decision I stand behind fully. To have done otherwise on the facts developed during our work would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and a public servant.”
No matter what happens next, Smith can look back on this chapter in US history with his head held high because he put his country over his self-interest, which is something Trump has never done.
“While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters,” he stated. “I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters. The facts, as we uncovered them in our investigation and as set forth in my Report, matter.”
He is right. While none of these things may matter to Trump, one can only hope that history will tell the story of who the bully is and who stood up to him.
