Trump special counsel Jack Smith was handed an 'easy case' that can be 'prosecuted at any time': legal expert

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show" early Saturday morning, former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne said special counsel Jack Smith has his work cut out for him when it comes to a Donald Trump criminal indictment over the Jan. 6 riot.

As for the Mar-a-Lago stolen documents investigation, she added that Smith was handed a case ready-made to take the former president to court as soon as possible.

Speaking with host Phang, Alksne said the Department of Justice had not done a good job pursuing Trump over the 2021 insurrection that forced lawmakers to flee for their lives, but the Mar-a-Lago case is a completely different matter.

Addressing the FBI searching Trump's Florida resort and discovering documents that should not be in Trump's possession after stalling the National Archives, Phang prompted, "One is so much farther along in terms of the development of evidence. We've seen some of it already in public, for public consumption, why haven't we seen charges here with respect to the hoarding of classified documents?"

"Well, I would guess that that was going to come pretty soon," the former DOJ official quickly answered. "I mean, let's face it, that's an easy prosecution: you stole the documents, we're asking for them, we ask you 'pretty please,' he said 'no,' you lied about it, you move them, and then we found them!"

"It's a reasonably easy prosecution," she elaborated. "There are a couple of outstanding things: one is, what is the obstruction? We know that, originally, they made the aide lie and didn't say that he had moved the documents under Trump's direction and then eventually flipped and did. Now, the question is was that flip, was that in any way coordinated? Without an obstruction by Trump or any of the lawyers as in, perhaps that Cassidy Hutchinson model with [attorney] Stefan Passantino."

"They have to figure out that obstruction, and they also have to figure out, now that they have the documents, were they shared with anybody and what exactly happened with them -- and that may take some time," she continued. "But the truth of the matter is that it's a relatively easy case, it could be prosecuted at any time, and I hope they do it before spring."

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