How far is special counsel Jack Smith willing to go?
The special prosecutor has already demonstrated his zeal in his mission to nail former President Donald Trump in a supposedly independent investigation of classified documents kept in his South Florida home.
Now, the political world is waiting for Smith’s public decision on whether to charge Trump in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion — and a conservative commentator is raising the possibility that Smith could up the ante even further.
In an interview with Breitbart News on Sunday, independent journalist Julie Kelly discussed the possibility that Smith would not only bring charges against Trump in relation to the incursion, but could also seek to have him held behind bars until it comes the case comes to trial.
In the friendly courtroom field of Washington, D.C., where Democrats reign supreme, Kelly said, Smith already has a precedent to work from: Defendants in Jan. 6 cases.
In a Substack piece published Sunday before her Breitbart interview, Kelly cited the case of William Chrestman, a Kansas City member of the Proud Boys and a Trump supporter who is still in a D.C. jail awaiting trial. Chrestman’s mother told the Kansas City Star in an article published in May that she doesn’t expect to see her son free until Trump is in office again and pardons him.
In a Feb. 26, 2021, order granting prosecutors’ request to hold Chrestman without bail, Judge Beryl Howell wrote that Chrestman’s “conduct on January 6 and blatant disregard for the law clearly show that he is a serious danger to the community and the nation, and that no condition or combination of conditions can be imposed that will ensure his compliance with the law pending trial in this matter.”
My explainer about how Jack Smith could ask a DC judge to deny bail for Donald Trump when he’s charged for January 6, likely this week. https://t.co/lxI6n9jlRp
— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) July 31, 2023
If the name “Beryl Howell” rings a bell, by the way, it might be because Howell was the judge who ruled in Smith’s favor to breach the confidentiality between Trump and his attorneys under a “crime-fraud exception,” as The New York Times reported in March. It just happened to be her last day as the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington. (She remains a judge in the district, however.)
It might also be because Howell was the judge who pressed prosecutors in court in 2021 on why they weren’t being tougher with Jan. 6 defendants.
A fine example of justice being blind, is Judge Beryl Howell.
In another part of the ruling, Kelly noted, Howell wrote that “a defendant who assumed either a formal or a de facto leadership role in the assault by encouraging other rioters’ misconduct, for example, by urging rioters to advance on the Capitol or to confront law enforcement, may have inspired further criminal conduct on the part of others.”
Does that sound like the picture Democrats are trying to paint of Trump’s activities that day? That was the whole point of Nancy Pelosi’s sham of a Jan. 6 committee.
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“Prosecutors have routinely cited Howell’s decision to justify pretrial detention for more than 100 January 6 defendants including those accused of committing no violence,” Kelly wrote.
So, where would that leave Smith, the Democratic attack-dog prosecutor, and Trump, the current top political opponent to Democratic President Joe Biden?
Given the current political atmosphere, where Trump is being attacked on all fronts by Democrats who appear desperate to either keep him out of the 2024 presidential race or abuse the legal system to tarnish him in the minds of just enough voters, would anyone be surprised if Smith tried to keep Trump behind bars?
(Actually, members of Trump’s Secret Service detail probably would be surprised — and wishing they were out on Hunter duty in Malibu.)
The scenario would be a nightmare for the country’s electoral process of course — though given how cavalierly Democrats treat election integrity (see, Texas or Georgia) that’s not real high on their list of concerns.
The prospect of a former president behind bars is bad enough — reminiscent of those banana republics that are currently disgorging their populations into the Biden open border to the south. The prospect of him being behind bars before the case goes to court would smack of a show trial that could have been run in Moscow of the 1930s.
Trump could still campaign for the GOP nomination from jail — in fact, he’d probably be harder to beat than ever among Republican voters. He could still compete for the general election nomination — and Trump has vowed he would do so.
But the idea of forcing him to do it has to have Democrats giddy — no matter what the cost to American prestige and credibility, not to mention domestic tranquility.
That would be the final tear to our countries fabric. We could never stitch this great country back together again. If they did this, I think every fair minded American would say “and what about the Biden crime family”. They better have a cell next door for Joe and Hunter.
— Rebecca Majewski (@RebeccaMajewsk5) July 31, 2023
From the time Trump entered the national political scene for real in 2015 to the current day, Democrats and their sapsuckers in establishment media have proven there are no limits to their frenzy to destroy him.
For the establishment media, it began even before Trump was sworn in, as Washington “journalists” were willingly led around by the nose by “anonymous” Trump enemies — leakers in the FBI mainly. Democrats needed to wait until they took control of the House in 2018 to get serious about their nonsensical impeachments of Trump, but impeach him they did — twice.
And now, a special counsel hellbent on attacking Trump could be bringing charges against him in one of the most militantly Democratic-biased legal jurisdictions in the country — the legal swamp of the political swamp.
Meanwhile, the country watches as Hunter Biden and his corruption-ridden crime family — including the “big guy” treat the legal system the way “devout Catholic” Joe Biden treats his church — there when it’s convenient, forgettable when it’s not.
How low is Jack Smith willing to go? The country could well see if the swamp has a bottom.
