President Joe Biden, 80, gave 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a retirement gift, asking 70-year-old Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate possible crimes by 76-year-old former President Donald Trump. Pelosi’s one big regret was that she lost he two impeachment trials in the U.S. Senate to remove Trump from office. Announcing Nov. 15 another run for president Biden thought it only appropriate to do everything humanly possible to prevent Trump from running in 2024. Why Democrats continue their obsessions with Trump is anyone’s guess? Democrats and the press spent years trying to convict Trump of various crimes including “incitement of insurrection” and “abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,” all failed to get convictions. Pelosi got what she wanted another Robert Mueller to investigate Trump’s alleged crimes
Only three days after announcing for 2024, Biden asked Garland to appoint a new Special Counsel. Biden’s move has the backing of all Democrats and sizable proportion of Republicans, committed in 2024 to keeping Trump out of the White House. Appointing experienced prosecutor Jack Smith, once leading the Obama administration’s chief prosecutor in its Nashville, Tenn. Office. Smith also worked as a special prosecutor at the Hague’s International Criminal Court. Smith will be tasked with reporting to Garland whether or not the Department of Justice should file charges against Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and for the removal of classified documents from the White House. Biden’s bold move against Trump isn’t going to play well in GOP circles, just as he called for bipartisanship as Republicans take over the House of Representatives, something equally unlikely.
Republicans will no doubt scream political bias, just as former Vice President Mike Pence branded the Jan. 6 House Select Committee as politically biased. Committee Co-chairs Rep. Bernie Thomson (D-Miss.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) clapped back at Pence denying political bias. Well with Democrats and Trump-hating Republicans on the Committee, how could it be seen as neutral? Asking Garland to appoint a Special Counsel for Trump shows that Biden and House and Senate Democrats would do anything to stop Trump in his tracks. Knowing Trump, he’ll double down again on casting himself the victim of malicious prosecution with former FBI Director James Comey and then Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Smith thinks he has low-hanging fruit to prosecute and charge Trump with obstruction of Justice for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot designed to prevent Electoral College certification.
When it comes to classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago when Trump’s resort was raided Aug. 8, it’s not going to be easy for Smith charge Trump under the Presidential Records Act, National Archives Act and Espionage Act. Democrats and the press couldn’t be happier with Biden’s decision, to go after Trump with the goal of preventing him from running in 2024. Biden gave new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) more ammunition to go after him and his son, Hunter, for illegal overseas transactions with China and Ukraine. Trump’s backers call Biden’s move for a Special Counsel the weaponization of the Justice Department. When Mueller investigated Trump’s alleged ties with Russia for 22 months and $40 million, he came up empty handed. Smith won’t have an easier time trying to find nonpartisan evidence that Trump broke the law at Mar-a-Lago and Jan. 6.
Smith’s burden of proof will be far greater the Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) who insists that she has evidence Trump planned and orchestrated the Jan. 6 riots. Smith, like Mueller, will have to find compelling nonpartisan evidence, not Cheney’s standard of “take-my-word-for-it.” Democrats and the press jumped-up-and-down today with Garland appointing Smith as Special Counsel. As Mueller found out, finding real evidence beyond-and-reasonable-doubt won’t be easy for the Special Counsel, largely because of the wild partisan speculation. If you talk to Rep.. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of Trump biggest detractors in the House, Trump should have been convicted long ago for “incitement of insurrection.” Appointing a Special Counsel could actually work in Trump’s favor because Smith used as higher standard draw any criminal conclusions, including obstruction of justice.
Biden would have been wiser to just let things play out without appointing a Special Counsel. Appointing a Special Counsel appears as egregious political bias to Trump’s backers, creating more gridlock and division. But as Mueller found out with his probe, cutting through the partisan smoke isn’t easy with so many Democrats and the press writing fake stories about Trump. Mueller knew from the outset that a lot of the probable cause against Trump came from the infamous Hillary-Steele dossier that accused Trump of ties with the Kremlin. Smith has no Steele dossier only facts from the Jan. 8 House Select Committee and Mar-a-Lago classified documents. Unless the Jan. 6 House Select Committee has missed something, Smith will have a far easier time proving that Trump violated one or more federal documents acts. Even so, charging Trump would look politically charged and petty.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
