Trump Fights His New Nemesis Over 270,000 Miles Away: NASA’s “Artemis 1” Mission Sets Another Record

The grace period for Jack Smith is over: “Armed monster”, “political killer” and “extremely partisan Trump hater” – ex-President Donald Trump insults his new nemesis every half hour. Trump has had a week to get used to the fact that another special prosecutor has been deployed to investigate possible crimes he allegedly committed. Now he’s shooting against Jack Smith on all channels.

Another special counsel had a similar experience: Robert Mueller, who was appointed in 2017 to investigate whether Trump had colluded with Russia to seize power. This time there are two questions: Did Trump want to prevent the legal transfer of office to Joe Biden on January 6? And did Trump illegally keep hundreds of pages of state secrets at Mar-a-Lago?

The main difference with then: Trump no longer protects an office. But still he will do everything he can to make Jack Smith’s job more difficult. His strongest weapon is already emerging: insults and slander – not only against Smith, but also against his family.

The goal is clear: Doubts about Smith’s studies and possible results must be sown in advance, at least among their own constituencies, they must appear illegitimate. Trump is actively supported by party members in the Senate and House of Representatives.

The ax for the American justice system

Her story goes like this: The legal institutions of the United States have become so permeated with left-wing Democrats that the judiciary is no longer independent. It doesn’t matter if it’s the FBI, the Justice Department or the courts – no one can be trusted.

Trump and the Republicans are once again undermining confidence in the cornerstones of American democracy. They say nothing about the fact that when in doubt they themselves use the possibilities of the system and, for example, appoint federal judges from whom they expect favorable rulings.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is one of the front runners. He consistently describes the appointment of Jack Smith as Special Prosecutor as politically motivated. Cruz even wrote a book about how the left allegedly undermines the justice system: “Corrupt Justice: How the Left Weaponizes Our Justice System,” it says. It currently ranks third on the US Amazon charts – ahead of the carefully researched tell-all books about Trump.

weaknesses of the system

It is true that – unlike in Germany, for example – the US Attorney General appointed by the President is also the Attorney General. At first glance, the Department of Justice (DOJ) seems less independent than it appears. This is one of the reasons why Joe Biden regularly claims that there is no way he would discuss the Trump investigation with US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

This structural weakness is now becoming even more apparent in the American two-party system. The current Biden administration is investigating the previous Trump administration. Especially to a man who has announced that he wants to be president of the Republicans again. This is a historical special case.

But for this very reason, to avoid any appearance of partiality, Garland ordered a special counsel to investigate. Jack Smith has far-reaching powers and can now investigate largely independently of the DOJ. His position is therefore quite comparable to that of a German attorney general, if only for the period of the Trump investigation.

The man who could topple Trump previously worked at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. As a prosecutor there, Jack Smith recently investigated war crimes in Kosovo. Smith is also no stranger to the United States. In 2010, he led investigations into politicians for corruption and election violations at the US Department of Justice.

Digging into Smith’s past

What Trump and his supporters now cite against him, among other things: In 2014, Smith led the investigation into then-Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. He was charged and convicted of receiving gifts for political favours. The Supreme Court later overturned the verdict. McDonnell’s political career, who was also traded as a possible presidential candidate, was damaged. That Smith also investigated the Democrat John Edwards, a former senator and vice presidential candidate of John Kerry, is missing from this story.

Trump and his followers are also not afraid to dig into Smith’s personal circle. Your calculation is kinky. Because Smith’s wife once donated money to the Democrats, he himself was discredited.

Recently, they spread that Smith’s sister-in-law compared Trump’s entry into the White House to September 11. The woman wrote in a 2016 blog post about the election victory: “[…] I woke up with the same sense of dread I remembered after the September 11 attacks.”

However, such statements are not known from Jack Smith, whose real name is John L. Smith. As an experienced prosecutor in the United States, he knows exactly what to say and what not to say in his position.

The pressure on him will continue to increase, the mud-throwing has already begun. Smith’s sister-in-law has since tried to anonymize her own blog profile from 2016. Her photo is gone, as is her last name. She can’t undo it. What happens to people publicly counted by Trump is well known. Death threats are standard experience.

Besides the investigation against Trump, this is probably the most difficult task for Smith: to resist the pressure. The man is used to threats. Otherwise he investigates corrupt people and war criminals. As soon as he returns from The Hague, it will be against the former president of the United States.

Legally, Smith’s investigations, even if they lead to indictments, do not stand in the way of a renewed Trump candidacy (here’s why). But the Democrats and more and more Republicans hope that Trump will finally be politically ready.