The unprecedented charges against former President Trump will result in an arraignment in Miami on Tuesday, and Trump’s legal team is working to counteract special council Jack Smith’s case against him.
Smith has a long-standing reputation as a Trump nemesis and has been at the center of not only the Mar-a-Lago documents case but also the Jan 6 incidents at the Capitol.
Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, was first assigned to oversee both Smith’s cases; the classified documents case, and January 6 case against Trump. Judge Howell previously ordered Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran to testify before a grand jury in Smith’s investigation into classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago, flipping Trump’s own lawyer into a witness and obliterating Trump’s attorney-client privilege in a ruling.
Smith was then able to use Trump’s own lawyer against him in the case. Trump’s privileged conversations with his lawyer about the boxes of documents stored at Mar-a-Lago were used to charge Trump with conspiracy to obstruct (count 32), withholding a document or record (count 33), corruptly concealing a document or record (count 34) and false statements (count 37).
But Trump’s team of lawyers will now file a motion to dismiss Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case citing prosecutorial misconduct. Trump’s lawyers will ask Judge Aileen Cannon to unseal Obama-appointed Judge Beryl Howell’s order obliterating Trump’s attorney-client privilege with his lawyer Eric Corcoran.
RealClearInvestigations reporter Paul Sperry reports:
Insiders say Trump’s new legal team preparing to file a motion to dismiss the case citing prosecutorial misconduct & will ask Judge Cannon to unseal Obama-appointed Judge Howell’s order breaching attorney-client privilege b/t Corcoran and Trump and declare notes inadmissable.
Smith was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to oversee the two investigations. He previously worked in the Manhattan DA’s office, the same office that filed a 34-count indictment against the former president concerning the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, which is scheduled to go to court March 2024.
Among other appointments, Smith oversaw the justice department’s public integrity section form 2010 to 2015. The department was created after the Watergate scandal to oversee corruption and prosecute crimes by government officials.
Smith has been cagey about his case and findings, prompting former President Trump to post on social media, ” No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong.”
When the indictment was made public last week, Trump posted vehemently proclaiming his innocence and calling the entire process a “witch hunt.” He arrived in Miami on Monday to address the charges and as he arrived in Miami, supporters gathered near Trump’s golf club where he was reported to be staying, Reuters noted.
Trump posted before he left for Miami, “I HOPE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS WATCHING WHAT THE RADICAL LEFT ARE DOING TO AMERICA.”
This being the second time and indictment has been levied against Trump, and the first coming to no avail, the former president and his supporters are optomistic that the current charges will dropped or conquered.
Polls continue to show Trump as the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday found that 81% of Republicans thought the charges were politically motivated. The poll also found Trump continues to lead his rivals for the party’s presidential nomination by a wide margin.
In the poll, 43% of self-identified Republicans said Trump was their preferred candidate, compared to just 22% who picked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Trump has accused Joe Biden of orchestrating the cases to undermine the Trump 2024 campaign and turn public opinion against Trump. Biden himself has been found in possession of classified documents dating back to his days as a vice-president and a senator. Neither of those positions hold de-classifying power.
Republicans are outraged that Trump is being accused of a crime when numerous Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Biden included, have also had documents in their possession and no charges have been brought forth in regard to them.
Speculation by Trump supporters is that the the legal attacks against him are proof that the Democratic Party is afraid for lost to Trump a second time, and that the attacks are a way to discourage his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
If the current charges do stand, a court date for these may be set also in 2024, which anti-Trump activists could use as ammunition to place a less popular candidate in the nomination. But The Hill reported that the CBS News and YouGov poll found that 61% of likely GOP voters would vote for Trump while only 23% of those voters would cast their ballot for Florida Governor DeSantis, the next in line challenger for the Republican nomination.
When asked what candidates they would “consider voting for right now”, 75% said they would consider Trump, 51% said they would consider DeSantis, 21% would consider SC Senator Tim Scott, 16% said they would consider Mike Pence, 15% said they would consider Nikki Haley, 13% would consider Vivek Ramaswamy, and 7% would consider Chris Christie.
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