A CNN legal expert revealed something surprising during former special counsel Jack Smith's testimony on Thursday.
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig described how Smith omitted something in his first public testimony over his investigations of President Donald Trump before the House Judiciary Committee hearing. CNN anchor Briana Keilar asked Honig to respond to the questions involving the timing around Smith's pursuit of going to trial against Trump.
"To your question, Brianna, thelast congressman we saw broughtup the fact that Jack Smithdemanded a trial date fourmonths out, five months out in acase involving 13 million pagesof documents," Honig said. "There is nodefense lawyer in the countrywho can constitutionally preparefor trial and defend his clienton that short of time frame. Theimplication was you were rushingto get this in before the 2024election. Jack Smith did notdefend himself, by the way. Hedidn't say a word about that,which I found, I found strange... And he didn'tdefend."
Smith, who has maintained that he is a nonpartisan prosecutor amid the fiery hearing with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, responded to questions over whether Smith was trying to push the trial for Trump forward ahead of the 2024 elections. At the time, Trump had called for retaliation against people with whom he disagreed politically, which Smith discussed with lawmakers during the hearing.
"And Jack Smith has always maintained this veneer that he never thought about the election. Of course he did," Honig said. "Why would you demand such a quick trial date? But there's a contrast that some of the Democrats made, which is, here you have Donald Trump explicitly calling for prosecutions of people. So some of Jack Smith's conduct gives rise, I think, to a fair conclusion that he was trying to rush it before the election. And Donald Trump is explicitly saying, 'go after this person, DOJ, go after that person who I don't like politically.'"
Smith, a career federal prosecutor, was appointed as a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate Trump's handling of classified documents and his role in the events surrounding the Insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
Smith led high-profile criminal investigations and prosecutions against Trump on multiple counts, including obstruction of justice and violations of the Espionage Act related to classified materials at Mar-a-Lago, though the cases faced significant legal challenges and delays, with Trump ultimately avoiding trial on these charges following his 2024 election victory.