Former Democratic New York Rep. Mondaire Jones warned Monday on CNN that special prosecutor Jack Smith’s decision to drop his cases against President-elect Donald Trump would convince Americans that there was no basis for the charges “in the first place.”
Judge Tanya Chutkan granted Smith’s request on Monday to drop the election interference case against the former president, writing in a prior filing that the Department of Justice has long maintained the position that “the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting president.” On “Erin Burnett OutFront,” CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Jones if he believed Smith and others should be concerned that Trump could “target them or seek revenge.”
“I think that Donald Trump has been very clear that he’s got a list of enemies and that Jack Smith, Dr. Fauci and many others are on that list. It remains to be seen how serious he is about going after them,” Jones said. “I think someone like a Matt Gaetz would have really pursued that at the Department of Justice. Let’s see what Pam Bondi does if and when she’s confirmed to lead the department. There are also obvious political ramifications for what happened today with these voluntary dismissals of these cases.”
“First of all, it cements Merrick Garland’s legacy as being the most ineffective attorney general of the United States in modern history because he waited so long to open these investigations such that we find ourselves at this point,” Jones added.
Jones went on to claim that Trump was strengthening his argument that the cases were political, stating he believed the former president would have been convicted if the cases had gone through.
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“But also Donald Trump, unfortunately, is speaking to folks who are not hearing the truth about these investigations, and so this is going to strengthen his argument unfortunately in their minds that these cases were the result of politics rather than the merits,” Jones said.
“I do believe he would have been convicted in both of these matters the way he was convicted earlier this year in a separate matter. But this is a real problem. It strengthens his hand when he says he wants to purge the Department of Justice of the Deep State for example, which is something we know is a falsehood,” Jones said. “But, to people seeing this voluntary dismissal, many Americans are going to think, ‘Oh so I guess there was no basis for these cases in the first place.’”
Following Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, Smith requested that Chutkan pause all deadlines and allow prosecutors to evaluate their strategy in his case against the president-elect. Despite being indicted in August 2023, the case had previously been delayed for months due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s presidential immunity.
Smith’s second case against Trump, involving the alleged mishandling of classified documents, was dismissed in July by a judge who ruled that Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed.
(Featured Image Media Credit:Screenshot/CNN/”Erin Burnett OutFront”)
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