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NLPC: Special Counsel Jack Smith Must Close Shop

News provided by news direct2024-11-08

--News Direct--

National Legal and Policy Center Counsel Paul Kamenar and Chairman Peter Flaherty issued the statements below regarding the future of federal prosecutions of Donald Trump.

“It appears that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is coming to his senses and preparing to drop the two federal prosecutions against President-elect Donald Trump, ” said Paul Kamenar, counsel to NLPC.

Although he vowed this summer to continue the prosecutions up until Inauguration Day if Trump got elected, neither of the two pending prosecutions, one in the District of Columbia for alleged election interference and the other in Florida regarding the classified documents case, could be tried before Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025.

“The public jury has spoken overwhelmingly on election day that these political prosecutions be dropped,” said Peter Flaherty, NLPC Chairman.

Once he becomes President, Trump can order his Acting Attorney General that Jack Smith be fired and the two cases be dismissed plus under Justice Department policy, a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. The most that Jack Smith can do now is write his report and submit it to Congress before he is fired.

NLPC has been critical of Jack Smith’s prosecutions since they began. Indeed, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the Florida Mar-a-Lago case based on the unconstitutional appointment of Jack Smith, the very issue which NLPC supported in the legal challenge to Robert Mueller’s appointment in the Russia hoax case.

As for the two remaining state cases, Trump lawyers are asking that those cases also be dropped. The sentencing in the biased New York hush money was already postponed to November 17 and there are immunity issues in that case as well stemming from the Supreme Court’s decision granting Trump immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken in office. The Georgia case is on appeal regarding the legality of prosecutor Fani Willis staying on the case but should also be dismissed.

According to Flaherty, “For the sake of the Rule of Law, it is a good thing that Trump won. If he had not, these prosecutions would continue, and future Republican candidates for President and other offices would face a barrage of lawsuits calculated to destroy their candidacies, livelihoods and reputations. Hopefully, the ‘lawfare’ warriors have learned their lesson, and we can return to free and fair elections.”

For more information or to schedule an interview with Peter Flaherty or Paul Kamenar, contact Dan Rene at 202-329-8357 or drene@nlpc.org.

Please visit http://www.nlpc.org.

Founded in 1991, the National Legal and Policy Center promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education and legal action.