'Jack Smith is winning': Analyst reveals how special counsel has Trump tied in knots

Former President Donald Trump has completely contradicted himself as he tries to fight the election subversion charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith — and it serves to show the extent to which "Jack Smith is winning," wrote Hayes Brown for MSNBC on Wednesday.

The issue stems from the former president's controversial defense of presidential immunity before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where his lawyer stirred outrage by claiming Trump couldn't be charged even for ordering a military assassination of his opponent. This entire argument, Hayes wrote, is predicated on the idea Trump was acting in his official capacity — but there's a big problem with that.

"Let’s jump back to right after the 2020 presidential election, in the early days of Trump’s attempts to declare himself the winner despite clearly losing to Joe Biden," wrote Brown. "Between Election Day and when the electoral college voted in mid-December, the Trump campaign filed a boatload of legal cases in various states attempting to have the results overturned. While across-the-board unsuccessful and built on the scantest of evidence, suing in court was well within his right as a presidential candidate."

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In these filings, Hayes noted, "his lawyers emphasized his role as a candidate to give him standing to bring suit. The harm that Trump alleged was being done was to him as a political office-seeker, not to him in his official capacity as president."

The problem is that this contradicts the idea Trump was acting in his official capacity — and therefore could have any immunity for his actions as president, according to Hayes.

"There’s little chance that the appeals court will rule in Trump’s favor," concluded Brown. "The same arguments will probably be regurgitated during the inevitable appeal to the Supreme Court. But that Trump is so busy trying to move the goalposts yet again proves that there’s reason for him to be worried that he’ll be facing Smith at trial before he can run out the clock in November."