Former President Donald Trump is known to share links to favorable news stories and right-wing opinions on his Truth Social account, but something changed Tuesday when he appeared to be promoting stories that knock him.
On Tuesday, he shared a Lawfare article by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Goldsmith that stated it was clear special counsel Jack Smith is rushing to trial.
The problem is, Trump appears to have only read the headline, and not the article, before circulating it.
The crux of the editorial is that Smith appears to believe that the American public deserves to know before the election if they'll be electing someone who is a felon, or even be in jail when the inauguration comes around.
But, by posting screen captures of what is labeled as an "excerpt" of the article, Trump promoted the idea that the article backs up his "witch hunt" theory of the prosecution.
After then-FBI Director James Comey announced an investigation into Hillary Clinton weeks before an election, Attorney General Merrick Garland penned a memo in May 2022 that addressed "Election Year Sensitivities."
"Federal prosecutors and agents may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party," Garland's memo says.
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Goldsmith cites legal analyst Ben Wittes: "I don’t think it is a grave threat to democracy to acknowledge candidly that in a case in which a former president stands accused of trying to overthrow the constitutional order by fraud and violence alike, one of the reasons a speedy trial is essential is so that voters can have the benefit of the trial outcome before voting on whether to restore to him the powers that would, among other things, let him obviate the case’s existence."
Cut from Trump's excerpt is this line from Wittes: "The reality [is] that the criminal law and the political system are in an iterative dialogue with one another here about how to shield our democracy from the menace of [Trump] as he faces trial for past abuses of the presidency even while seeking the office once again."
Goldsmith, who wrote the book "After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency," continues, "I have no doubt that if Trump is reelected by the American people, his second term will be massively unsettling."
Some Former Trump aides appear to concur. Earlier this week, former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton warned against a second Trump term.
"I think Trump has made it pretty clear he wants to withdraw from NATO, and I think that should be scary to anybody who worries about defeating Russian aggression, and not just in Ukraine, but really around eastern central Europe, central Asia, and the prospects of growing linkage between Russia and China," Bolton remarked.
"A lot of people on the Republican side are defending Trump's rhetoric about NATO, saying he's just bargaining," Bolton continued. "All I can say is repeat: his intention is not to strengthen NATO, it's to weaken the NATO and ultimately withdraw from it. And I hate to be proven right on this, if Trump is elected, but I feel very confident that's what he wants to do. I consider that scary."
Others have expressed concern about Trump's proposed plans to stack the government with loyalists. Trump is pushing for the return of "Schedule F," which would allow him to more easily dismiss career government employees. Career employees are important to the functioning of government departments, such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
"When you think about gutting some of these agencies," Georgetown Law Professor Michelle Goodwin recently said, "then we're talking about matters that affect our health, that affect how vaccinations, for example, come into the marketplace and how drugs come to the marketplace."
