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bigtree

(90,907 posts)
Tue Jan 14, 2025, 06:11 PM Jan 14

Jack Smith comes to Merrick Garland's defense [View all]



A common sentiment on the left is that Garland was too deferential to Trump after Joe Biden took office and failed to unleash the full might of the department on the former president for nearly two years. The delay, critics say, made it much more difficult for Smith — once he was appointed in November 2022 — to bring Trump to trial before the 2024 election.

But Smith’s report emphasized that the Justice Department was aggressively investigating leads related to Trump long before the special counsel’s tenure began. Litigation tactics by Trump and his allies, Smith argued, were the key factors that slowed the process to a crawl.

...It took Smith more than a year to obtain text messages between Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark. And the department spent months fighting to access communications of John Eastman, a lawyer who helped devise Trump’s last-ditch efforts to remain in power.

The most protracted battles of all stemmed from Trump’s “broad invocation of executive privilege to try to prevent witnesses from providing evidence,” Smith wrote. It took months of secretive legal proceedings to secure testimony from Trump White House aides such as Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino and Pat Cipollone. Former Vice President Mike Pence also resisted testifying until a court ordered him to reveal some — but not all — details about his interactions with Trump. Smith noted that judges broadly rejected Trump’s privilege claims, with one holding that he was engaged in an “obvious” effort to delay the investigation.

Smith also drew attention to what may have been his biggest foil: the Supreme Court. He pointed out that the justices rebuffed his effort to put Trump’s presidential immunity claims on a similar timetable to the one the court adopted five decades earlier in litigation over Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s tapes.

And Smith argued that the Supreme Court’s resolution of Trump’s immunity assertion essentially guaranteed another round of litigation that would have been all but certain to return to the justices if Trump had not won the election and the prosecution had continued.

read: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/14/jack-smith-special-counsel-report-takeaways-00198252


...good reading for the reality-based community which has had to endure spurious claims about what was essentially a secret investigation and prosecution which only revealed its intentions in court, advantaging the reticence of DOJ to explain or defend their actions while the cases were still ongoing.
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Interesting mr715 Jan 14 #1
Yeah, it's a shame garland waited until he got the J6 committee stuff. Think. Again. Jan 14 #2
I don't know. While I appreciate Smith's defense of Garland, I still despise the way he handled the whole thing, after SWBTATTReg Jan 14 #3
I didn't see it as "defending" garland.... Think. Again. Jan 14 #4
Well, good. I don't think Garland deserves any defending, and IMHO, he's going to be defending his calls for years and SWBTATTReg Jan 14 #6
Yeah, I guess he thought he was more clever than... Think. Again. Jan 14 #7
He should have realized, DENVERPOPS Jan 14 #16
the 'small fry' bigtree Jan 14 #8
Here we go again. William769 Jan 15 #30
if he had chosen Timewas Jan 14 #5
you must have forgotten that the maga majority on the SC is at the end of any series of certain appeals bigtree Jan 14 #10
He did nothing Timewas Jan 14 #12
revisionism bigtree Jan 14 #13
Walk us through exactly how a trial could have been "forced" to happen before the election Fiendish Thingy Jan 14 #19
As if he "should have chosen," huh? ancianita Jan 14 #22
Smith joins Mueller, Fitzgerald, Hur, etc. Silent Type Jan 14 #9
all different prosecutions bigtree Jan 14 #11
K&R Joinfortmill Jan 14 #14
I think what it shows is the weakness in our justice system, that the processes can be dragged out ad nauseum. What is Evolve Dammit Jan 14 #15
A LOT of cases in our justice system take years if defendants can afford counsel that ancianita Jan 14 #23
Best justice for those who can afford it. I guess that is a huge point. Evolve Dammit Jan 15 #25
So...? What do you think? ancianita Jan 15 #28
I will continue to complain about cases that should have been brought that didn't happen. Especially when the stakes Evolve Dammit Jan 15 #36
How's that working out for you so far? ancianita Jan 15 #41
TY for this -- I so appreciate fact-based commentary Hekate Jan 14 #17
Don't care. Iggo Jan 14 #18
Smith can cover for Garland all he wants, and I haven't read the article at the link ... aggiesal Jan 14 #20
it's stating the facts of the investigation bigtree Jan 15 #34
That's a long response ... aggiesal Jan 15 #37
that's proven false by what I posted, and what's in the report bigtree Jan 15 #39
Of course he would. Jack Smith is a prosecutor who tells the truth. ancianita Jan 14 #21
I have eyes edhopper Jan 14 #24
lol bigtree Jan 15 #31
Why would other articles edhopper Jan 15 #35
this is a discussion board, not a news site. bigtree Jan 15 #38
You see your democracy almost destroyed and don't go after the ones in charge for the longest time? GreenWave Jan 15 #26
Garland's DOJ began investigating the Trump WH in 2021 bigtree Jan 15 #40
My thoughts, looking back. bluestarone Jan 15 #27
Thank you sir! William769 Jan 15 #29
This message was self-deleted by its author BannonsLiver Jan 15 #33
LMAO BannonsLiver Jan 15 #32
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