Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to deliver remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Visits: 9
Judge Rejects Jack Smith’s Plea, Allowing Trump Co-Defendant to Submit FBI Transcript in Classified Docs Case. Another reason that this trial must end now.
A federal judge has allowed a Trump co-defendant in the classified documents case to file a redacted FBI interview transcript with his motion to dismiss, in a blow for special counsel Jack Smith.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said in a paperless order on Wednesday there were “even stronger” reasons to deny Mr. Smith’s “sweeping” request to overcome the public’s “common-law interest in access to these materials.”
Smith is going at this trial as if it’s a case that those charged should have no access to any witness or information that has been gathered against the defendants and how that information was gathered or received.
Smith trying to stop Trump from using evidence. Again Smith has run to the judge. This time his goal is to keep out evidence. Special Counsel Jack Smith wants to prevent President Trump from blaming provocateurs and undercover agents for the January 6 Capitol riot.
“Through public statements, filings and argument in hearings before the court, the defense has attempted to inject into this case partisan political attacks and irrelevant and prejudicial issues that have no place in a jury trial,” Jack Smith’s 20-page filing said.
“Although the court can recognize these efforts for what they are and disregard them, the jury — if subjected to them — may not. The court should not permit the defendant to turn the courtroom into a forum in which he propagates irrelevant disinformation, and should reject his attempt to inject politics into this proceeding,” Smith wrote according to the court filing
NEW: Jack Smith, in likely vain attempt to keep March 4 trial date, filed another pretrial related to what the jury should be allowed to consider. (All pretrial deadlines now on hold)
Smith wants to preclude the jury from hearing evidence about Jan 6 in his Jan 6 case: pic.twitter.com/m8hgn6eGoJ
James Trusty sounds off on Jack Smith's grand jury 'shenanigans'
Former federal prosecutor James Trusty joins 'Life, Liberty & Levin' to dissect the new indictment against former President Trump. Fox Photo.
Special Prosecutor Smith will do anything and everything to get a conviction.
A former federal prosecutor called out a reported filing made by an attorney for former President Donald Trump’s valet – a co-defendant in the Mar-a-Lago special counsel case – and said the allegations amount to “extortion.”
James Trusty, a former chief of the Justice Department’s organized crime unit, said both Trump’s case and the state of allegations against the Biden family from whistleblowers “speak volumes” about the integrity of the current DOJ.
He referenced allegations against Assistant U.S. Attorney for Delaware Lesley Wolf that claim she warned Hunter Biden’s attorneys about potential scrutiny on a storage unit the first son used.
“In my book, that’s basically obstruction of justice,” Trusty said on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin” Sunday.
Waltine Nauta, left, takes a phone from Former President Donald Trump at a golf event in Virginia.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
But, Trusty added that a recent wrinkle in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into alleged mishandling of classified information at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach may be similarly alarming.
“You had a high-level DOJ official — according to a statement submitted as an officer-to-the-court, to a federal judge — told Stanley Woodward, a defense attorney representing Walt Nauta that it would be a shame, essentially, if he endangered his pending judgeship by not flipping Nauta against President Trump,” Trusty said.
The incident, first reported in the UK Guardian, claimed federal prosecutor Jay Bratt – head of the counterintelligence and export-control section of the DOJ’s National Security Division – brought up the fact that Woodward filed an application to be considered for a federal judge opening.
Waltine Nauta along with defense attorney Stanley Woodward.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Woodward appeared before prosecutors in Washington in November 2022, according to the Guardian, over a matter they did not want to talk about by phone. The paper characterized the exchange as one in which Bratt suggested Woodward’s endeavor for a judgeship would be viewed in a more positive light if his client cooperated against his boss — the former president.
“Again, it’s extortion,” Trusty told host Mark Levin.
“So the people that we are entrusting in our criminal justice system to fairly and impartially and transparently pursue justice are actually obstructionists because they’re so hellbent on going after one target: President Trump.”
Trusty said the reported incident involving Woodward and Bratt is the latest example of continued suggestions the Biden DOJ has “no compunction about breaking the rules” or flouting rule-of-law for political ends.
Trusty added that there are other “shenanigans” afoot in Smith’s use of a grand jury regarding Trump, characterizing the classified documents case as one that began with a presiding judge in Washington, but continued with an indictment lodged in Miami.
“You don’t do a grand jury investigation for a year only to move it to another district unless there’s more to the story,” he said.
Levin noted that the grand jury in Washington would be witnessing evidence and occurrences that would naturally remain unbeknownst to a Florida grand jury, thereby muddying the case.
“Past people I have talked to that have faced this man, Smith, say that’s exactly what he does,” Levin said.
US prosecutor John L. “Jack” Smith presides during the presentation of the former Kosovar president Hashim Thaci before a war crimes court in The Hague, Holland.(JERRY LAMPEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“He pierces attorney-client privilege by-hook-or-by-crook, gets it in front of the grand jury. It’s used in front of the grand jury. And now in this case, he’s moved it to another grand jury. And so the grand jury in Florida and the judge in Florida don’t know anything about it unless Trump’s lawyers are good enough to raise it with them.”
Trusty, who at one point was part of Trump’s Washington-based legal contingent but withdrew in June, said he hopes the former president’s current counsel does bring the discrepancies before Judges Tanya Chutkan – the Obama appointee in Washington – or Aileen Cannon – the Trump appointee in Miami.
Of the Bratt-Woodward report, Fox News contributor and George Washington University Law Prof. Jonathan Turley also opined, saying in a June “Hill” column the indictment against Nauta, a Guam native, is “clearly designed to concentrate [his] mind on cooperation.”
“If he were to flip… Trump would face a potentially insurmountable case,” Turley wrote in the column.
Aileen Cannon denied a request from the government to file a list of witnesses hostile to Trump under seal. Photograph: Reuters
Visits: 16
Winning. Judge Rules Witness List in Trump Case Can’t Be Secret. Special prosecutor Smith tried to hide his witness list. Claims 84 witnesses but wanted to keep those secret. Well the judge said NO.
Judge Cannon rejected the request made by special counsel Jack Smith to keep a list of 84 potential witnesses confidential. “The Government’s Motion does not explain why filing the list with the Court is necessary; it does not offer a particularized basis to justify sealing the list from public view; it does not explain why partial sealing, redaction, or means other than sealing are unavailable or unsatisfactory; and it does not specify the duration of any proposed seal,” Judge Aileen Cannon wrote
Looking. How funny is this? Weissmann of all people has a back up plan to get Trump. What’s this clown famous for?
Weissmann was involved in FBI activities with the mob in New York in the 1990s. He was a key member of the Enron Task Force in the early 2000s and also was involved in the sale of Uranium One under Obama.
And of course he led the Russian collusion fiasco for Mueller. How’d that turn out? Well he’s got another scheme.
Seems as if he thinks Smith may not win in Florida. So bring up more federal charges in New Jersey. It never ends.
68
