Jack Smith Admits To Violating Same Law Used Against J6
Jack Smith may have walked into a legal snafu, admitting earlier this week that he may have violated the same federal law his office is relying on to prosecute President Donald Trump and hundreds of J6 participants.
Legal experts have previously noted that Smith likely erred in the handling of classified documents taken from Mar-a-Lago during the FBI’s raid in August 2022. Last week the prosecutor admitted that some of the boxes containing the documents were not properly categorized and that a chain of custody cannot account for why the contents in the boxes have shifted in the time since. Andrea Widburg with the legal blog American Thinker suspects such an oversight may cost Smith his case.
Like J6 participants, it could be argued that Smith’s team ran afoul of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) which carries up to 20 years in prison for an individual who “corruptly…obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.” However, the U.S. Supreme Court is in the process of hearing a case brought by one J6 defendant who has credibly argued that the DOJ is ignoring another passage which states that an individual who “alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding…” is guilty. A central argument by the defense is that no documents or physical records were obstructed during the January 6th, 2021 riots at the Capitol.
Smith admitted in a filing on Friday that some of the evidence registered in boxes taken from the property does not match up to itemizations given to Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta but brushed away concerns that the former Trump aide raised, calling the information he was provided “entirely accurate.”
To be sure, it’s “no small matter” for Smith to concede that the government may not have kept evidence in the state in which it was seized, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said on Monday. “Prosecutors have a duty to preserve evidence, Larry, exactly as it is seized,” Jarrett told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, the Daily Caller reports. “Jack Smith’s special counsel admits now in court documents altering, manipulating evidence against Trump. The digital scan of documents doesn’t match the physical order in the boxes that were seized.”
From the American Thinker:
As any litigator knows, maintaining documents in the order in which they’re seized or produced is enormously important. That’s because order itself provides important information about the chronology of events or a person’s intent or innocence. It’s also of particular concern in this case because these documents were apparently packed by the General Services Administration, which then told Trump to pick them up.
In addition, it’s now beyond question that the DOJ doctored the crime scene photos it publicized to the world to “prove” that Donald Trump had allegedly violated national security laws. (See my disclaimer above about Trump’s immunity from such a claim.)
Both instances, Widburg claims, exemplify how the DOJ has altered records in violation of the law they wield against defendants. “That strongly implies both corruption and intention, two elements of a criminal cause of action,” she concludes.
Smith’s cases against Trump may already be destined for history’s waste bin. Florida U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely suspended his classified documents case this week on the grounds that Trump’s ongoing Manhattan trial adds too much uncertainty to announce a start date. If Trump wins a second term in the White House, it is all but certain that he will use executive authority to end both federal cases against him.
