It’s an indictment only a Democrat could love — but honest Americans should despise.
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, one of the best-known legal minds of his generation, took to Fox News “Hannity” on Tuesday to demolish the latest effort by special counsel Jack Smith to turn former President Donald Trump into a criminal.
And in the process, he made it clear just how poisonous the politics of the Merrick Garland Justice Department really are.
The 45-page indictment announced Tuesday charges Trump with four counts: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
But they all hinge on one essentially unprovable point, Dershowitz said.
Check out the segment here:
Prosecutors claim “Donald Trump actually believed that he lost the election that everything he did was fraudulent that he conspired with unnamed lawyers mostly to affect the election,” Dershowitz said.
“So the government has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that subjectively Donald Trump actually believed that he lost the election and acted contrary to that belief.”
Nothing in the indictment backs that up, Dershowitz said.
“Now, I read the indictment very carefully. There is no smoking gun,” he said. “There is no one who is credibly prepared to testify that Donald Trump said to him, ‘I know personally I lost the election.’
“There’s a lot of evidence that people told him he lost the election, but you know Donald Trump, and you know that he’s going to make up his own mind, and they’re going to have a very hard time proving that.”
A “hard time proving that” is an understatement.
Even Trump’s worst detractors have to have difficulty believing that he actually thinks he lost the 2020 election. Tens of millions of his supporters have trouble believing it, given the hair-breadth margins of victory President Joe Biden recorded in key swing states, and the evident meddling of the FBI and the barons of social media — not to mention the lingering suspicions of more traditional election fixing that haven’t disappeared.
For Trump himself, who has been unfailingly consistent in his public statements about the vote for the past three years, it’s almost inconceivable.
But, as Dershowitz pointed out, Smith won’t be bringing his case in a jurisdiction of fair-minded Americans. The case is in Washington, D.C. — where Biden took more than 90 percent of the vote.
“Now, it’s the District of Columbia, 90 some-odd percent of the jury pool will have voted against them so they may actually get a conviction from a D.C. jury, but will it survive appellate review and review to the Supreme Court?
“I don’t think so.”
And that, essentially, is where the Smith prosecution is resting its case. He has a history of political prosecutions — including a corruption conviction of former Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell that was overturned by a unanimous Supreme Court in 2016. (It was an 8-0 vote. The seat left open by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February of that year was still open — and Democrats were trying to put Merrick Garland in it.)
This isn’t about pursuing “justice” in the traditional American understanding of the word. It’s about shopping a weak-as-water political prosecution to the most sympathetic jury pool in the country and landing a conviction that would stand as a public smear against the most popular political opponent of the current president.
Trending: GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson Handcuffed, Detained While Trying to Help with Medical Emergency at Rodeo
It’s a tactic the likes of Vladimir Putin would admire (a guy who’s big on jailing the opposition).
But it has nothing to do with loyalty to the law.
That’s why, Dershowitz said, “the first motion his lawyers will make will be a change of venue to northern Virginia, where the jury pool will be fairer … and you could move it further, you could move it to southern Virginia, where it’s much more even. You could move it to an adjoining state.”
“Remember, this is a federal indictment. It doesn’t have to be tried within the state or the area. You can make a motion for a change of venue.”
It’s a rock-solid bet that Smith would fight a motion like that tooth and nail — probably with plenty of sob stories about how the “trauma” of the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion affected the D.C. population in a way unlike anywhere else in the country, and blah and blah and blah.
But the real issue would be that pretty much nowhere else in the country would the deck be so stacked in favor of Democrats.
“I agree with Professor Dershowitz,” Hannity said. “I believe he can’t get a fair trial in D.C. If the trial is in D.C., it’s a fait accomplis. It would be a guilty verdict.”
Dershowitz summed up the matter best as he explained why, even in the event of a conviction, the case wouldn’t survive a Supreme Court review.
“When you have the president of the United States’ people going after his opponent in a political election, it has to be beyond reproach,” he said. “It has to be without any problems. It has to be the strongest case in history.
“This doesn’t meet that standard.”
The only standard it does meet is political expedience.
And that means it meets the Democratic need of the moment, which is to smear Trump — and, by extension, his supporters — as much as possible for the benefit of Joe Biden re-election hopes.
It’s an indictment only a Democrat could love — but Americans should despise.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/harvard-law-professor-declares-jan-6-trump-indictment/
Mark Levin: Special Counsel Jack Smith Is a ‘Hit Man’
During the opening monologue of his Sunday FNC program “Life, Liberty & Levin,” host Mark Levin criticized Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating alleged wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump.
Transcript as follows:
LEVIN: There’s a lot that has been said about these new indictments that have been brought against President Trump, a superseding list of indictments, and I want to get into this so-called superseding list a little bit later.
But that said, what everybody is missing here is President Trump didn’t delete a single video. How do I know that? I read this indictment. He is charged with trying to get employees to delete videos, attempted to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage sought by the grand jury investigating the mishandling of government records.
So these records were not deleted. They have all the video, over nine months’ worth of video. So what they’re doing here is piling on with a he said-he said. They are trying to get somebody to flip one of these individuals, a maintenance man, an IT person, you know, the little people they’re going after because the truth is, the rest of their case is very, very vulnerable.
This is vulnerable too in my view, but it’s very, very vulnerable.
I want to get into that in a second, but before I do, I want you to look at this chart to demonstrate to you that when Merrick Garland said we’re going to have a special counsel, the purpose of a special counsel is to have a prosecutor who is outside main justice, to bring in fresh faces, fresh blood so you don’t have a conflict of interest or an appearance of a conflict of interest.
It’s not to set up your own federal government law firm with unlimited resources, 60 prosecutors and investigators to target a former president of the United States, and that is exactly what’s taken place.
Jack Smith was sent to The Hague because he was a lousy, overzealous failed prosecutor who formerly headed the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice.
And I want to get into this, who is Jack Smith? He was chief of the Public Integrity Section from 2010 to 2015. Who did you report to ultimately? Eric Holder, and you’re going to see Eric Holder has a lot to do with a lot of the people who are now involved in hunting down Donald Trump.
He served under Attorney General Eric Holder, he oversaw the IRS targeting of the Tea Party during the Obama administration. He oversaw the failed — ultimately — prosecutions of Governor McDonnell, of Senator Menendez, of Senator Edwards.
He worked with FBI Director James Comey as head of the Public Integrity Section. He worked with FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann, who you’re quite familiar with as head of the Public Integrity Section.
Does he sound like a man who is independent from the Department of Justice? Does it sound like a man who is independent from the Democratic Party?
He was chosen on the recommendation of Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general who had multiple positions — senior positions in the Obama Department of Justice, also primarily under Eric Holder. Her deputy, Marshall Miller worked with Smith for years in the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, and recommended Smith to Monaco as the story goes, who in turn recommended Smith to Merrick Garland.
Out of all the people they could have chosen in America, they go to The Hague to bring back Smith, because he’s a hit man.
Judge Beryl (Howell) was the judge who oversaw all of these motions that were filed by the Trump lawyers and the government. She ruled 100% against Donald Trump, 100% for the government; and she has since retired, but the damage is done.
Who is Judge Beryl Howell? She worked for former Democrat Senator on the Hill, Patrick Leahy for 10 years. That was her claim to fame. And she, of course, was appointed by Obama.
And let’s go through several more of these people. We have a gentleman by the name of David Harbach. He is typically the chief litigator for Smith. He has known him a long time, former special counsel to FBI Director James Comey. I’m trying to show you the incestuous relationship.
These people coming out of main justice, the U.S. Attorney’s office, mostly Democrats, Democrat operatives, they’ve known each other for decades. So have many of the judges who are appointed. They come out of main justice and so forth and so on.
This is why Republicans don’t have a chance when they’re caught up in something involving the Department of Justice, the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, they don’t have a chance.
The grand juries are chosen from a population that voted five percent for Trump, 93% for Biden and the courts, I’ll get to in a minute, lopsided Democrat, lopsided Obama and Biden.
More about this fella, Harbach. He’s a real nasty bird. He served with Jack Smith in the Public Integrity Section, top official there. He prosecuted Bob McDonnell, John Edwards, and Bob Menendez and he was in a Florida courtroom the other week, making outrageous arguments in front of Judge Cannon who I’ve had second thoughts on. I actually think she is now doing a pretty good job as I read all the transcript and so forth.
She is actually doing a pretty good job, let’s see how it turns out overall. She is not one of these D.C. judges, which I’ll get to in a second.
We have Jay Bratt. Who is Jay Bratt?
Jay Bratt has been a justice a long time. He got a special award from Eric Holder several years back. He is the chief of counterintel and customs and all the rest of it. He’s a former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.
He is directly involved in the Mar-a-Lago search. He argued strongly for the search warrant, for the FBI raid. Her is over the top. He knows very few bounds.
He was in that same Florida courtroom the other week, with Harbach. These are the people who Smith has brought in.
He is accused by Stanley Woodward who represents the co-defendant to Donald Trump of extortion. He is accused of waiving a federal judgeship in front of this attorney who is trying to become a federal judge in Washington, D.C. for a favorable testimony from his client against Donald Trump.
The fact that this guy shows up in a federal courtroom in Florida without that being resolved is unbelievable to me. But that’s who he is, another hit man.
Then we have Raymond Hustler, another guy that comes out of the Public Integrity Section. So what Jack Smith did is he brought all of his guys back, all of the people who have abused the law in the past, all of the people who have abused and targeted individuals and turned them in to defendants in the past. He has brought them all into his special independent counsel office, all come out of main justice, most come out of the Holder regime when he was there.
He hired Harbach. He was involved in the McDonnell, Edwards, Menendez cases as well. Who is Julie Edelstein? She’s a deputy to Bratt. Julie Edelstein interned for whom? Representative Bennie Thompson.
Okay, who is Mary Dohrmann? Mary Dohrmann clerked for former Chief Judge Beryl Howell. How the hell was she on the case with a conflict of interest like that? It doesn’t matter.
So, there she is. A prosecutor in the case.
Timothy Duree, who is he? He’s another hunter. He donated to the 2020 Biden campaign. Well, what about that? Isn’t that a serious issue? You would think it would be, right?
And there’s more.
This is what I found after many, many hours of investigation and the funny thing is, Judicial Watch has sued the Department of Justice and the special counsel’s office because they won’t release the names of all their personnel. Can you imagine that?
We knew all the people who worked for Mueller. Why? Because Smith doesn’t want you to know that he has hired hit men, hatchet men from the Department of Justice, main justice, from the U.S. attorney’s office, people who worked with him in Public Integrity, people with connections to James Comey, almost all of whom served under Eric Holder, people with connections to Obama and that is essentially the group of individuals who every day are looking for ways to take out Donald Trump, I want you to know this, and every day are looking for ways to take out the people who worked for Donald Trump or work for Donald Trump.
And of course, they’re trying to interfere with the election. It’s not that they are as a matter of fact, it is they are as an affirmative matter of fact. They are of the same mindset as the prior group that worked so hard to interfere in the last election, which was pointed out by U.S. Attorney Durham. Nothing has changed over there.
And by the way, this guy, Weissmann — Andrew Weissmann became head of the Enron taskforce, you know, who appointed him to be head of the Enron taskforce when he was assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division? Christopher Wray, the current FBI director who Chris Christie has vouched for, of course.
So this whole thing stinks. Now, let’s look at the judges in Washington, D.C., shall we? The Democrats have worked very, very hard, Obama-Biden, especially to appoint activists, left-wing Democrat judges in these district court level, trial level judgeships.
First we had Judge Howell, who has since retired. Before she retired, the day she retired, she issued a very controversial decision, because Jack Smith wanted to get the information and notes of Donald Trump’s lawyer involved in the documents case.
Attorney-client privilege exists to protect your due process rights. If you can’t consult with your lawyer, that’s fine. Well, there is a crime fraud exception. We have no idea how she ruled. We don’t have the order. We don’t know a damn thing about what she did.
But we do know that she’s ruled against Trump every step of the way, and ruled for Smith and his predecessor every step of the way. She has since retired.
She was replaced with Chief Judge James Boasberg. Who appointed him? Obama. He used to work in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, too.
There is another judge, Judge Rudolph Contreras, Obama appointee. He worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. at one point.
Judge Christopher Cooper, Obama judge. He worked in the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama judge. She was in the D.C. public defender office, that is in Washington.
Judge Randolph Moss, he worked at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington appointed by Obama.
Judge Amit Mehta worked in the D.C. public defender office, appointed by Obama.
You have Judge Timothy Kelly, appointed by Trump, but Kelly worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office. They worked in the Public Integrity Section at the Department of Justice. And that’s important, because there’s this relationship, professional relationship, social relationship, I almost don’t care who appoints who that exists in the swamp.
We have Judge Trevor McFadden, who was in the U.S. Attorney’s office at main justice, also, a Trump appointee.
We have Judge Dabney Friedrich, was at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, main justice under Bush appointed by Trump.
We have Judge Nichols. I don’t know much about Judge Nichols. Then we have Judges Gia M. Cobb, public defender’s office in D.C., appointed by Biden; Judge Ana Reyes, appointed by Biden.
So you have 10 of the 12 judges in the D.C. Circuit area, in the D.C. court who worked at main justice. Eight of the 12 were appointed by Obama or Biden. The chief judge was appointed by Obama, the prior chief judge was appointed by Obama.
The grand jury is made up of citizens from the District of Columbia, five percent of whom voted for Donald Trump.
This is why the grand jury was used in Washington, D.C. to take out Trump. This is why all those original charges were brought by the grand jury in Washington, D.C. because where they were supposed to go and where this grand jury was supposed to be working in investigating all these months, was in Florida.
Here is the United States Department of Justice Manual for U.S. Attorneys and you look at 9-11.121, Venue Limitations. This is required.
Venue Limitations: One sentence. A case should not be presented to a grand jury in a district unless venue for the offence lies in that district.
The documents case is in Florida, all the work was done in Washington, D.C. These lawyers for Donald Trump need to file a motion. They shouldn’t wait for the trial. You have to file a motion to dismiss for prosecutorial misconduct and because they changed the venue, the basis of venue shopping, I would call it.
And so all these charges should be thrown out. The rules of the Department of Justice are a hundred percent clear and grand jurors are supposed to be chosen from the district in which the activities took place and any charges will be brought. It was clearly violated.
They should immediately bring a motion to dismiss the search warrant — I talked about this the other week, it’s a general warrant. It would end the entire case. They should have a Franks hearing, that as a hearing with the judge on the basis for the warrant, the information that was in the warrant and whether any exculpatory information was concealed from the court.
So there should be a motion to dismiss for prosecutorial misconduct involving Jay Bratt, who was in the judge’s courtroom in Florida for allegedly extorting one of the defendants — the attorney for one of the defendants in the case, that is still under secret review by a judge in the District of Columbia.
This case, belongs in Florida, all of it.
One other point involving this deal that fell through with the Department of Justice on Hunter Biden. I think a lot of people are missing another fact. This judge in Wilmington is not part of the social professional swamp of judges in Washington, D.C. She’s in Wilmington, Delaware. I looked at her background. She has no connection to those people.
An honest judge with integrity, who is not biased, makes a huge difference in this country. That’s what happened. The Biden lawyers and the Department of Justice are used to being rubber stamp.
The Department of Justice has been rubber stamped all throughout the Trump investigation. That is the judges have upheld virtually every single thing they’ve wanted to do, including all the abuses.
This judge is not part of that circle. She’s in Wilmington.
The judge in Florida, Judge Cannon is not part of this circle. That’s why they trash her and they’re trying to influence her. She’s not part of that circle.
So that’s what’s important to understand when people say how did they expect to get away with this? Because they’re used to getting away with it. Except when you move outside of Washington.
Don’t get me wrong. The courts aren’t perfect. But when you move outside of Washington, you actually have a chance of justice and due process. That’s what happened in Wilmington. Let’s hope it continues and that’s hopefully what will happen in Florida.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/07/31/mark-levin-special-counsel-jack-smith-is-a-hit-man/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/speaker-mccarthy-statement-new-trump-indictment-attempt-distract/
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