Jack Smith (Credit: Getty Images)
Special counsel Jack Smith may not be in the clear, even after dropping all charges against President-elect Donald Trump.
Smith’s decision to dismiss his cases against Trump on Monday reignited calls for an investigation into his efforts. While it’s unclear if probing Smith is high enough on Trump’s priority list to translate talk into action, some aren’t ready to simply brush Smith’s months-long pursuit aside now that the threat is gone.
Investigating the federal prosecutions against Trump is important “because of the huge cost and ultimate failure,” former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Whether that yields findings of criminality is unlikely. However, I think it will find that Smith’s novel legal approach was fraught with issues that should have led a reasonable prosecutor to decline prosecution,” Cherkasky told the DCNF. “Smith is already leaving his special counsel post, but I anticipate some of the lawyers working under him will also be forced out of the [Department of Justice] DOJ for engaging in a legally unsound prosecution.”
Smith’s two Trump prosecutions cost taxpayers upwards of $50 million, according to DOJ reports.
“There is a lot of evidence that the congressional Jan. 6 committee intentionally avoided evidence beneficial to Trump’s position, and if Smith did the same, his conduct could be grounds for more severe consequences,” Cherkasky noted.
The Heritage Oversight Project posted on X Monday that they are preparing a “model indictment” of Smith. Executive Director Mike Howell suggested Smith could be charged under the federal law prohibiting a conspiracy to violate an individual’s civil rights, but told the DCNF there are “other potential avenues as well.”
“Jack Smith and his office must face severe legal, political, and financial consequences for their blatant lawfare and election interference,” Article III Project President Mike Davis like wrote Monday on X. “This includes a federal criminal probe for conspiracy against rights under 18 U.S.C. § 241.”(Read more: The Daily Caller, 11/29/2024) (Archive)