Former special counsel Jack Smith wanted to file a motion to have far-right Trump appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon disqualified from overseeing the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case against President Donald Trump, according to a new book by Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis and profiled by The Washington Post.
But he hit a brick wall and felt unable to escalate the situation.
The book, "Injustice," details the criminal cases against Trump.
"Smith said U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee with limited experience, had ignored decades of precedent in dismissing the case outright and urged an appeals court to reverse her decision. He had also wanted to take an even more dramatic step ... by trying to get Cannon tossed off the case entirely," said the report.
However, "But when a senior Justice Department official in the Biden administration rebuffed Smith’s desire to have Cannon pulled, the special counsel chose not to press his case with Attorney General Merrick Garland."
According to the authors, Smith felt constrained because if Garland agreed with the lower official and refused to allow a motion to disqualify Cannon, “it would have to be reported to Congress” — presumably kicking off a political firestorm.
Ultimately, the appellate court never got a chance to rule on Cannon's dismissal, which was based on a fringe Supreme Court concurrence by Justice Clarence Thomas, because with Trump retaking office following the election, the Justice Department followed its longstanding guidelines that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted and the case was dropped.
More recently, Smith has sought to testify on the details of the case before Congress, reportedly triggering fears among Republicans that Trump's years of publicly attacking and smearing the prosecutors on the case could backfire.
