by Julie Kelly at Declassified with Julie Kelly
In a footnote contained in a motion last week, the Department of Justice disclosed that Special Counsel Jack Smith officially resigned on January 10. Smith had announced his plans to leave the DOJ a few days after Donald Trump won the presidential election.
But it appears Smith, the losingest prosecutor in DOJ history, pulled one more stunt on his way out the door: sending an unnecessary and one-sided “report” on his two failed prosecutions of the incoming president to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The president’s lawyers had learned of the report through media coverage. When they confronted Smith’s office, prosecutors originally agreed to let the attorneys view the draft in Washington over the December holidays, a proposal rejected by the president’s team. The attorneys then viewed the document during the first week of January and immediately sent a letter to Garland detailing their objections to the report’s release. (I explained here.)
The report consists of two volumes. Volume One, according to the DOJ, covers the January 6-related indictment of President Trump in Washington and Volume Two addresses the so-called classified documents case in Florida. After Trump’s victory, Smith moved to drop both cases.
But Smith did not drop the case against Trump’s two co-defendants…
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