TOWNHALL | Published November 29, 2024
On Monday Special Counsel Jack Smith officially moved to dismiss the January 6 federal case brought against President-elect Donald Trump. The decision was made after he won the 2024 presidential election on November 5.
Many celebrated the move, calling it an end to Democratic lawfare. But others are urging caution and pointing out it’s no time for celebration. There’s still a need for real accountability.
“I’m as happy as anybody to see some of the lawfare cases against President Trump thrown in the garbage where they should’ve been all along. It’s a good start. But I hope my colleagues on the right aren’t yet ready to shake hands, say ‘good game’ and move on as if this didn’t happen. People’s lives were destroyed over this. Many of my friends (as well as myself) got put through the wringer over outright lies — and I was one of the lucky ones all things considered. Plenty of folks aren’t out of the woods,” former Trump White House Senior Communications Advisor Ben Williamson posted on X.
“I don’t know what the path forward will look like, and President Trump will certainly put the main focus unifying people and fixing the hundreds of other problems facing the country, as he should. But there will need to be some accounting for who participated in this BS to make sure it never happens again. I won’t forget,” he continued.
Trump senior advisor Dan Scavino, who worked in the first Trump White House and is headed back in January, also weighed in.
Others echoed the sentiment.
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SOURCE: www.townhall.com
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This is what happens when the Supreme Court gives a stamp of approval for Trump’s quasi-royal rule.
MSNBC | Published November 27, 2024
In what feels to many of us like a crushing blow to justice, special counsel Jack Smith on Monday moved to dismiss both of President-elect Donald Trump’s federal criminal prosecutions — the 2020 election subversion case in Washington, D.C., and the classified documents/obstruction of justice/espionage case in Florida. Judge Tanya Chutkan promptly dismissed the D.C. case, and a dismissal of the documents case almost certainly will soon follow. These democracy-busting developments make clear that, at least for the four years a president is in office, he is above the law — the functional equivalent of a king.
How did we get here?
Let’s look at the D.C. case first. In a four-count indictment, Trump was charged for crimes he allegedly committed while he was president, including a conspiracy to deprive the American people of their voting rights by unlawfully trying to retain the office of the presidency, contrary to the expressed will of the American people when they elected Joe Biden as their president.
The six ideologically conservative members of the Supreme Court decided to conjure up presidential immunity seemingly out of thin air.
Smith presented evidence to a grand jury in Washington, including countless Republican witnesses, and the grand jury concluded there was ample evidence to indict Trump. As that case headed for trial, Trump’s lawyers filed a motion claiming that presidents have absolute immunity against prosecution for crimes they commit while in office. Notwithstanding that there is no law, no appellate court precedent and no constitutional support for Trump’s claim of presidential immunity, the six ideologically conservative members of the Supreme Court decided to conjure up presidential immunity seemingly out of thin air, essentially bestowing the potential power of lawlessness on American presidents. Notably, the Supreme Court did not conclude that Trump committed no crimes. Instead, it returned the case to Judge Chutkan to determine which of Trump’s crimes should enjoy immunity from prosecution and which should not.
While that litigation was ongoing, Trump won the 2024 election. But because the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel is of the opinion that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, Smith was compelled to dismiss Trump’s cases.
So where does that leave us? It’s worth remembering that the allegations in the Trump D.C. indictment include five areas of alleged criminality: the baseless, bad-faith court challenges to the 2020 election results filed by Trump’s lawyers; Trump’s pressure campaign on state elected officials (recall Trump’s recorded request to “find 11,780 votes”); the fake elector scheme; Trump’s pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify Biden’s election win; and, when all else failed, a call to his supporters on Jan. 6 to march to the U.S. Capitol, “fight like hell” or “you won’t have a country anymore,” and “stop the steal,” a not-so-thinly-veiled command to stop the certification of the election results.
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