Special Counsel Jack Smith was forced on Tuesday to drop a key subpoena asking for documents related to former President Donald Trump’s fundraising efforts during the 2020 election, signaling the federal case against Trump is beginning to crumble.
According to The Washington Post, Smith is reducing the number of subpoenas he issued in an attempt to learn whether or not Trump tried to profit from spreading false rumors that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election.
Save America, a political action committee controlled by Trump, spent heavily on attorneys contesting election outcomes in key swing states like Georgia, where the Republican faces a separate state-level investigation alleging election interference. This latest development ends part of Smith’s inquiry into Save America.
According to two sources familiar with the situation, Smith’s demand was dropped while Save America was in the midst of compiling responsive documents. Representatives for both Save America and the Office of the Special Counsel were unavailable for comment.
While it is not uncommon for federal investigations to have a wide scope, Smith’s apparent hesitation to reopen the case suggests he is growing wary of allegations that he pressured state officials to accept slates of alternate delegates and challenged the tabulation of votes by voting machines, all of which involve President Trump and his powerful fundraising machine. Save America is not named as a co-conspirator in the original indictment against President Trump.
This has not been a good week for Smith.
The federal judge overseeing Trump’s classified documents case handed Smith and his team another setback on Tuesday.
Smith and his prosecutors had requested to keep documents seized during the FBI’s August 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in a private facility outside of the Florida district where the case was filed, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed, refused to allow it.
Cannon ordered Smith to share the documents in a location convenient for Trump’s legal time, within the South Florida district.
“The parties are advised the production of classified discovery to defense counsel is deemed timely upon placement in an accredited facility in the Southern District of Florida, not in another federal district,” Cannon wrote. “It is the responsibility of the Office of the Special Counsel to make and carry out arrangements to deposit such discovery to defense counsel in this District.”
NEW: Judge Aileen Cannon just denied Special Counsel Jack Smith's request to create a secure facility in DC which would have forced Trump and defendants to travel to DC to view some "classified documents" in Smith's other case against Trump.
Polar opposite of Judge Chutkan: pic.twitter.com/V1xzUQQKBF
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 17, 2023
The ruling is another favorable to Trump as it builds on a previous decision over the summer denying Smith’s request to hide his list of 84 witnesses from Trump’s legal team. Smith had argued that Trump’s frequent critique of his court cases in public and on social media would prejudice or intimidate those witnesses who could see their names made public.
Those keeping track of the case also pointed out that Smith is relying on a legal strategy that seeks to influence jurors emotionally rather than by simply presenting unbiased facts. For instance, Smith’s use of words like “fraud/fraudulent” some 63 times and “false/falsely” 94 times, coupled with “fake” at least five times, and three uses of the word “sham” are all meant to sway jurors’ minds.
Smith charged Trump under the Espionage Act of 1917, which has seldom been used since it was passed. Trump has denied all charges, claiming he can declassify anything at will under the Presidential Records Act.
Earlier this week, Cannon “postponed a hearing on whether one of Trump’s co-defendants understood that his lawyer might have conflicts of interest,” The New York Times reported, saying that she also admonished the prosecutorial team for “wasting” time.
“I do want to admonish the government for frankly wasting the court’s time,” Cannon of the Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla., told David Harbach, a prosecutor working with the special counsel Jack Smith on the case.
The Times added:
At issue was a request by Mr. Smith’s team that Judge Cannon hold a hearing to make sure that Mr. Trump’s co-defendants — both of whom are employed by him — understood that their lawyers, who are being paid by a political action committee affiliated with the former president and who have represented witnesses in the case, had possible conflicts.
In the case of one co-defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and residence, the hearing proceeded largely without incident. Mr. De Oliveira’s lawyer, John Irving, had represented three witnesses in the case.
Harbach argued before the court that Irving is under obligations of confidentiality and loyalty to former clients, and those may be challenged if he was to cross-examine them in his defense of De Oliveira “or question their credibility in summations to the jury,” the Time reported.
During the proceedings, Cannon observed that those arguments had not been included in prosecutor filings before the hearing. Irving told the judge that he no longer represented those witnesses.
De Oliveira, who was asked several questions by Cannon after he explained that English is not his native language, said he wished to retain Irving as his attorney, the outlet noted.
I’ll have more on this soon but Jack Smith’s team got slapped HARD today by Judge Cannon in classified docs case. Smith is trying to disqualify defense counsel per “Garcia” hearing. They tried to change their argument during proceedings today. She was having none of it. Hero. pic.twitter.com/drPlNTeD1i
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 13, 2023
Cannon eventually ruled that it wasn’t possible to fairly hold a hearing under the current circumstances, leading her to postpone it later, the Times added.
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