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Jack Smith

Trump asks when 'deranged Jack Smith' will give him an apology

Donald Trump on Thursday asked on his Truth Social platform when "deranged Jack Smith" and others will drop the federal indictment against him and apologize.

In an all-caps rant, Trump insists that the Presidential Records Act and "the Clinton Socks case" have "totally exonerated" him from the "continuing witch hunt."

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'Cheap shot': Former prosecutor smacks down Trump ally for misrepresenting Jack Smith's case

Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman got into a sparring match with Donald Trump ally Mike Davis on Twitter Thursday over the implications of the former president's case being tried in South Florida rather than Washington, D.C.

The origin of the argument involved the Supreme Court's decision this week that settled a jurisdictional issue that had been considered a potential roadblock for special counsel Jack Smith as he mulled trying Trump in DC or Miami.

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'Hard to imagine a worse situation': Legal expert says DOJ must demand Aileen Cannon's recusal now

According to former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, there is no reason for the Department of Justice to wait for Judge Aileen Cannon to start presiding over the trial of Donald Trump before asking for her to be removed from the case.

In a series of Tweets, Vance explained that there is already bad blood between the Florida judge and the DOJ when it comes to anything involving the former president, who is now facing a historic 37-count indictment.

Last year, Cannon's interference with the DOJ as it attempted to review classified government documents the FBI had retrieved from Mar-a-Lago was dismantled by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals which issued a sharply worded rebuke.

As Vance sees it, worries that Cannon will see it as an "affront" if special counsel Jack Smith asks that she step aside should not even be a consideration, given her past dealings with the DOJ.

On Twitter, the legal expert wrote, "I'm confused by the argument that the gov't shouldn't move for Judge Cannon's recusal because she might be affronted. Given the history in the prior litigation, I'm sure she already is. It's hard to imagine a worse situation with a trial judge."

"Prosecutors have 2 moves here: file a motion to recuse now. If she denies it, she's required to write a statement saying why. That could be helpful. They can also wait until she enters an appealable order & ask the 11th Cir. to reassign the case on remand," she continued. "The issue is whether the public can have confidence in this judge's conduct of such an important trial. The answer is no based on how she handled the prior case. And if she rules against Trump, he'll claim she's trying to fix her reputation. It's a lose-lose if she stays on."

She concluded, "If Cannon recuses, this case could go to another Trump appointee. That's not what this is about. It's about whether, as the 11th Circuit said, even in the absence of bias 'the original judge would have difficulty putting his previous views and findings aside.'"

Republicans backing ex-president 'tell lies at least as dangerous as Trump's alleged actions': columnist

On Friday, June 9, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) responded to former President Donald Trump's 37-count federal criminal indictment by tweeting a video of comments she had made a year earlier.

The arch-conservative congresswoman was serving as vice chair of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-California) bipartisan January 6 Select Committee when, on June 9, 2022, she declared, "Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues: You are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."

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DOJ is waiting for Aileen Cannon to make 'another misstep' before pouncing: Former Mueller prosecutor

The Department of Justice probably won't ask to move federal judge Aileen Cannon off the Mar-a-Lago documents case until she issues a questionable ruling, and legal expert Andrew Weissmann said special counsel Jack Smith has multiple options to respond.

The Florida district court judge was assigned to oversee the trial despite a series of controversial rulings in an earlier phase of the investigation, and Weissmann told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he doubts the Department of Justice will ask for another judge right away.

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'No sane politician' wants to defend Trump after reading the indictment: MSNBC's Heilemann

MSNBC's John Heilemann said "no sane politician" wants to go on record defending Donald Trump now that a federal indictment spelled out the serious allegations against him.

The former president's Republican allies have been rallying around him since the FBI executed a search warrant last August at Mar-a-Lago and found hundreds of classified documents he had taken from the White House, but the "Morning Joe" political analyst said their defense has been more muted since special counsel Jack Smith revealed evidence to support 37 criminal charges.

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'Try it': GOP congressman ripped for threatening to read top-secret documents on the House floor

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is among the many Republicans who has been attacking the Biden Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in response to the 37-count federal criminal indictment that former President Donald Trump is facing. Massie claims that the indictment is politically motivated, but Trump's critics — including special counsel Jack Smith — have maintained that the indictment is about national security, not politics.

Trump is accused of mishandling government documents he was storing at his Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida, and 31 of the 37 counts are for alleged violations of the Espionage Act. The former president has insisted that all the documents at Mar-a-Lago were "declassified," but Smith disagrees and alleges that Trump endangered national security by moving documents with classified, top-secret information to Mar-a-Lago — documents that, according to Smith, should have remained in Washington, D.C. when Trump left the White House on January 20, 2021.

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Ethics experts lay out options for removing Trump-appointed judge from Mar-a-Lago documents case

When the news broke that former President Donald Trump had been indicted on federal charges in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice's Mar-a-Lago documents probe, major media outlets initially reported that there were seven counts. But when the indictment was unsealed, the number of counts was revealed to be much higher: 37.

The judge who has been assigned to the case is Trump appointee Aileen Cannon. Trump's critics fear that Cannon, in light of her previous ruling in this case, will be biased in his favor.

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Legal experts fear Fulton County case against Trump could end up being a 'sprawling mess'

In a discussion Wednesday about Donald Trump's indictment in the Mar-a-Lago document case, legal experts Harry Litman and Norm Eisen deviated to address concerns they have about the pending case in Fulton County, Georgia.

Several weeks ago, District Attorney Fani Willis said she expected a large pool of people to be indicted in her investigation that's looking into attempts to interfere with the 2020 election in Georgia – but the legal eagles on the "Talking Feds" podcast said a case needed to be kept simple.

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Jack Smith could 'sidestep' Aileen Cannon by charging Trump elsewhere: legal experts

As damning as the indictment against Donald Trump appears to be, it's possible he'll face even more serious charges in a federal court outside of Florida.

The former president was charged with 37 counts in Miami related to his mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, but legal experts Ryan Goodman and Andrew Weissmann wrote a new column for The Atlantic saying the indictment shows Trump may have committed additional crimes at his private residence in Bedminster, New Jersey,

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Watch: GOP lawmaker quickly changes the subject when confronted by specifics of Trump indictment

Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) on Wednesday rushed to change the subject during an interview on Fox News when asked about specifics of the indictment leveled against former President Donald Trump.

During the interview, reporter Carley Shimkus pointed out that "inside the indictment it did say that [Trump’s] handling of classified documents could have put our national security, our military members at risk."

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'The man is going to prison': GOP operative says latest indictment is 'too much' for Trump to overcome

Republican operatives working on rival Republican presidential campaigns are telling NBC News that they believe former President Donald Trump is in serious legal jeopardy, even though the candidates they're backing aren't yet willing to say so publicly.

One operative who is described by NBC News as "in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ orbit," predicted it would be extremely difficult for Trump to overcome this particular scandal given the plethora of evidence special counsel Jack Smith has lined up against him.

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'There will be a federal Jan. 6 case' against Donald Trump: Mueller lead prosecutor

Former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Weissmann predicted on Tuesday's edition of MSNBC’s Deadline: White House that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith will charge ex-President Donald Trump with crimes related to the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection and Trump's foredoomed scheme to remain in power following his defeat in the 2020 election.

Weissman shared his foresight hours after host Nicolle Wallace recalled that Trump pleaded not guilty to the thirty-seven-felony-count indictment filed against him by Smith for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021.

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