Jack Smith Made a Major ‘Mistake’ in Trump Case, Harvard Law Professor Says

(Left) Special counsel Jack Smith. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images); (Right) Former President Donald Trump. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

A Harvard Law professor claims special counsel Jack Smith made a “mistake” by not bringing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Washington.

The special counsel’s team indicted President Trump for illegally retaining classified documents and allegedly obstructing the government’s attempts to get them back in Florida.

“Charging this case in Florida rather than DC was a mistake. Many of us argued that at the time, publicly and privately,” Laurence Tribe, a longstanding critic of the former president, wrote last week in a social media post. “Fears of a fight over venue were understandable but never justified the risk Smith took that he'd draw a judge like Cannon.”

Mr. Tribe has often been critical of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the Trump case, accusing her of trying to delay the case. There is no evidence to suggest that Judge Cannon is intentionally trying to delay the Trump case, and Mr. Smith has also not made such accusations in any of his court motions.

President Trump also faces charges brought by Mr. Smith’s team in a separate case for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results. In that case, he was indicted in Washington before he appealed the matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is slated to make a ruling sometime in the coming weeks.

Judge Cannon last month indefinitely postponed the classified documents trial date, coming after she noted there were a number of outstanding motions that she has yet to issue rulings on.

“Finalization of a trial date at this juncture---before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and [classified evidence] issues ... would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions,” the judge wrote in a five-page order in early May.

Her court held a hearing in the classified documents case in mid-May in which a federal prosecutor, David Harbach, accused Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta’s lawyer of fabricating claims that he was pressured by the government into cooperating. In a court document and during that hearing, Stanley Woodward, Mr. Nauta’s attorney, said that a Justice Department official, Jay Bratt, threatened to impact Mr. Woodward’s judgeship nomination if his client did not cooperate.

“I think the implication was that I was to travel and convince Mr. Nauta to cooperate with the investigation, and if I didn’t that, there would be consequences,” Mr. Woodward said, according to court reporters. “Mr. Woodward’s story of what happened at that meeting is a fantasy,” Mr. Harbach shouted. “It did not happen.”

That prompted Judge Cannon to tell Mr. Harbach to “calm down,” according to reports.

Other Cases

If President Trump, the leading GOP candidate for the White House, wins the presidential election in November, he could shut down the two Smith cases, while the state case in Georgia may have to be frozen. Last week, a jury in Manhattan convicted him in a trial that accused him of falsifying business records, while sentencing in the case is scheduled for July 11.

In the Georgia case, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee has also not set a trial date, coming after allegations surfaced against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis regarding a relationship she had with her former special counsel in the Trump case. It’s not clear when Judge McAfee will start the trial, and he’s given no public indication of his timeline.

President Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges that accused him of illegally retaining classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left the White House in early 2021. Officials also said he illegally obstructed federal officials from trying to obtain them.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying they are politically motivated and designed to interfere with the 2024 election.