Jonathan Turley wrote in a Saturday op-ed that Smith’s latest court filing against Trump was a “raw political calculation.”
Legal analyst and attorney Jonathan Turley wrote in a Saturday opinion column that Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith’s latest filing against former President Donald Trump could “backfire” on prosecutors.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump’s federal election interference case, partly unsealed Smith’s 165-page filing aimed at convincing Chutkan that the former president’s alleged offenses in the wake of the 2020 election are private, rather than official acts of office, and can therefore remain in his indictment.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, faces four felony counts in Smith’s case against him in Washington, D.C., after he allegedly tried to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in the aftermath of his loss, which culminated in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claims the case is politically motivated.
The former president has also raged about the timing of Smith’s latest briefing, accusing the DOJ of looking to help Vice President Kamala Harris’ election bid in November by releasing the evidence now.
In an opinion piece published by The Hill on Saturday, Turley, who has been supportive of Trump throughout his legal battles, wrote that Smith’s briefing was an attempt to make “his closing election argument to voters because he knows that the 2024 election will be the largest jury verdict in history.”
“If voters reelect Trump, then neither Chutkan nor Smith will likely see a jury in the case”, Turley added. “This is why they must convict Trump now in the public eye or else admit to an effective acquittal by plebiscite.”
Turley continued, however, that Smith’s “timing could well backfire.”
“The weaponization of the legal system is central to this election, including the role of the Justice Department in pushing the debunked Russia-collusion allegations from the 2016 race”, the attorney wrote in his op-ed.
