‘Gratuitous End’: Jonathan Turley Says History Won’t Be Kind To Jack Smith After He Drops Trump Case

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Monday that history will not remember Special Counsel Jack Smith too kindly after he dropped the election submersion case against President-elect Donald Trump.

Smith filed a motion Monday to dismiss his four-count criminal indictment against Trump which alleged that the president-elect engaged in conspiracy in an attempt to overthrow the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021. Turley said that Smith “lost credibility” by attempting to both try Trump and release “damaging information” before the 2024 election.

“Smith had sort of a gratuitous end to his term. You know, he pushed not only for a trial before the election, and he pushed for months for that, but he also released damaging information before the election something that many people saw as an effort to influence the election,” Turley said. “Smith knew that if Trump won, he was out of a job and this release of the information was entirely unnecessary, admitted that it was procedurally irregular, but she went along with it and I think that that did tarnish his position and certainly in history because he didn’t have to do that. He had become so absolutely fixated on trying Trump before the election, that he lost credibility I think with the courts.”

Turley referred to Smith’s 165-page un-redacted brief released Oct. 2 detailing how Trump allegedly attempted to overturn the 2020 election, which had been released in an attempt to prove that the now-president-elect’s actions on Jan.6, 2021 were not official presidential acts. The Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts taken while they are in office, causing Smith to file a trimmed down superseding indictment