Legal expert: Jack Smith isn’t letting Trump 'off the hook that easily'
MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin on Monday explained that despite Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith's move to have Donald Trump's federal 2020 election case dismissed — the president-elect is not officially "off the hook".
Speaking with Rubin, Deadline: White House guest host Alicia Menendez noted, "The move was expected with Trump's election victory, since it's the justice department's policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. Smith writing in his filing to Judge [Tanya] Chutkan today, 'The department and the country have never faced the circumstance here where a federal indictment against a private citizen has been returned by a grand jury, and a criminal prosecution already is under way, when the defendant is elected president.'"
Melendez emphasized, "In other words, criminal defendant Donald Trump got out of his legal troubles by getting elected president."
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Rubin replied, "[Smith's move was] not unexpected at all."
She added, "What is unexpected is that Jack Smith is looking to dismiss the cases without prejudice, which, of course, leaves the possibility they could be reopened at another point in time. On one hand, it could be totally meaningless. One, to dismiss the cases without prejudice means that you're taking a flyer on whether or not they can be told or paused while Trump is in office. And, of course, there's the other possibility that could render them meaningless — which is that he could just pardon himself."
"But Jack Smith is essentially saying today, 'I'm willing to take the possibility of a toll, and if you want to pardon yourself, that's on you," Rubin continued. "You have to do that. I'm not going to let you off the hook that easily. I'm not gonna absolve you of that. I'll go as far as dismissing without prejudice because OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] policy requires me to, but no further."
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