Jack Smith is going all in on Donald Trump
In terms of being able to get a conviction at trial, Jack Smith likely has Donald Trump nailed for January 6th related crimes just by virtue of Mike Pence’s testimony, and Smith likely has Trump nailed for classified documents related crimes just by virtue of attorney Evan Corcoran’s testimony. But it turns out that’s not enough, and Smith is going for even more.
Well, it might be more accurate to say that Jack Smith is going for less. Less uncertainty, that is, by tacking on the kinds of more easily proven charges that are all but guaranteed to result in conviction.
First came the news days ago that Smith is targeting Trump and some of his unnamed allies for a quarter billion dollars in wire fraud, after they raised that money by claiming the election was rigged when they knew it wasn’t. Now comes the news that Smith is targeting Trump for having possibly tampered with Mar-a-Lago’s closed circuit footage, which would amount to a slam dunk obstruction of justice case.
To that end, Smith is reportedly ” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>putting Trump Organization executives Matthew Calamari Sr. and Matthew Calamari Jr. in front of the grand jury today, to give testimony about the allegedly tampered-with surveillance footage. This would mean the Calamaris are witnesses, not targets. Smith is also reportedly putting “several” other witnesses in front of the grand jury today, pointing to the rapid fire nature of this kind of endgame testimony.
When the Feds are bringing complicated criminal charges against someone, they generally like to also bring more surefire charges that even a reluctant jury is almost guaranteed to convict on. Jack Smith appears to be lining up charges like evidence tampering and wire fraud for that reason. Even if a jury doesn’t end up liking the more complex charges like incitement or espionage, the tampering and fraud charges alone will be enough to put Trump away for the rest of his life.
