Critics says Special Counsel Jack Smith (pictured above), a Department of Justice prosecutor in the Barack Obama administration, has brought forward questionable cases before. It's the third indictment brought against Trump with a fourth likely coming from Georgia. Left-leaning news outlet The Daily Beast says many Democrats have refrained from commenting on the most recent indictment perhaps because they believe it's the most serious one yet.
As Smith's pursuit of Trump continues, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Arizona) believes the entire case centers around who a jury would like to believe.
The special counsel must prove that Trump "knowingly" committed fraud by claiming the election was stolen. In the indictment Smith says he'll prove that because of statements made by government officials close to Trump: Vice President Mike Pence, senior leaders in The Justice Department, The Director of National Intelligence and White House attorneys, to name a few.
Speaking on Washington Watch Thursday, Lesko told host Jody Hice that strategy will fail because Trump can present just as many voices to say that evidence of election fraud did in fact exist.
"Jack Smith tries to prove that Donald Trump knew there wasn't election fraud as he lists off different people who told him there wasn't any evidence of election fraud. The problem with that," said Lesko, "is that there were other people, including Trump's own attorneys, who showed him evidence or told him there was election fraud.
"So, I don't see any way that the Department of Justice can prove that Donald Trump knowingly made false claims of election fraud. I think that's the crux of their case, and I don't think they can prove it," the GOP lawmaker said.
Who is Jack Smith?
Appointed in November 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel to investigate Trump, Smith was chief of the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section under Obama. Before that he worked with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Reuters says he earned a reputation for winning tough cases against war criminals, mobsters and crooked cops.
Not everyone, however, is impressed with his work. A defendant may be validated in a Smith prosecution, but there can be damage in the wake.
Smith's conviction against former Virginia Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, for example, was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous vote – but McDonnell paid a high political price in the meantime.
"Jack Smith is the political hit man the Democrats sent in to take out Bob McDonnell," Mike Davis, a former civil litigator and the founder of the Article III Project, told Hice. "He brought out these bogus corruption charges and won a conviction, but that took [McDonnell] out of the presidential and vice-presidential race before 2016. The Democrats – Biden, Garland and Smith – are running the same play against Trump in 2024.
"He was overturned 8-0. It would have been 9-0, but Justice [Antonin] Scalia had passed away."
Mark Levin, noted author, radio personality and chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese during the Reagan administration, told Fox News that Smith "ruined" McDonnell's career.
Smith was also the prosecutor when his campaign finance case against former Democratic presidential candidate and then-North Carolina Sen. John Edwards ended in a mistrial.
There have been other instances where charges were unsuccessful or not brought.
'Piling on' only solidifying Trump's chances
A Georgia indictment for Trump appears to be more a question of when than if. The Fulton County Courthouse began putting up barricades in late July, a likely indication that big legal news is near.
Some believe the piling on of indictments will wear down the campaign for Trump, who leads the GOP field with 58% in the most recent numbers. Davis, however, sees the indictments having a reverse effect.
"I think [a fourth indictment is] going to put him back in the White House," he stated bluntly during the interview.
"I think the Alvin Bragg indictment won Trump the nomination. I think the first Jack Smith indictment put him into contention strongly with Biden. I think the second Jack Smith indictment is going to help Trump win comfortably by, like, maybe two or three percentage points," he listed.
"… I think the American people, if you look at the polling, see [indictment after indictment] for what it is: this is political warfare to take out Trump because Democrats fear that he'll beat President Biden or Governor Newsom on November 5, 2024."
