Jack Smith is waging a war of 'unprecedented size and scope' against Trump’s allies: legal analysts
Special counsel Jack Smith's decision to issue subpoenas to former Vice President Mike Pence, ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other close advisers of Donald Trump is an indication that he has no qualms about engaging in "closed-door courtroom warfare" in his efforts to investigate the former president.
That is the opinion of two former U.S. Department of Justice officials, who commended Smith for using the full force of the tools available to him without political considerations.
In a column for the Bulwark, attorneys Philip Allen Lacovara and Dennis Aftergut pointed out that Smith's efforts since being appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland are of "unprecedented size and scope" and that the former president's attorneys not only have their hands full, but are faced with the fact that their efforts to keep associates to Trump from testifying will ultimately fail based upon previous rulings.
As the two wrote, "Team Trump’s resistance to legal process is unquestionably driven by a desperate desire for self-preservation. But it must also be understood in the context of the last six years. Trump was a constitutional wrecking ball during his time in office. He did enormous damage to the rule of law. And his acolytes’ attempts to evade lawful subpoenas must be seen against that backdrop."
The two lawyers note that attorneys for Trump appear to be dragging out the battle over subpoenas "long enough to postpone any decision to indict Trump, a declared candidate for the 2024 presidential election, until the Justice Department’s longstanding practice of avoiding politically sensitive charges close to an election kicks in," but they add that this plan might be thwarted by Smith's legal strategy.
"Smith has been prudent to keep his options open by bringing these battles to court promptly while he simultaneously pursues other parts of his investigations, especially the Mar-a-Largo misconduct, well before his January 6th seditious conspiracy case is ready," they wrote, adding, "Subpoena battles are not exactly rare, but this volume is more than unusual—although certainly in keeping with standard operating procedure during the Trump years, when the former president outrageously turned resisting subpoenas into policy for the executive branch, another front in his war on the rule of law."
With that, they complimented Smith and suggested, "this fight is crucial to a judicial system in which the law proceeds against even its most powerful violators without fear or favor."
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