Over the course of the last couple of years, Donald Trump has shared a few unkind words about special counsel Jack Smith. The former president has, for example, referred to the prosecutor as a “thug” in a “mental state of derangement” who “may very well turn out to be a criminal.”
Soon after, the Republican condemned the special counsel as a “mad dog psycho.” He’s also accused Smith of overseeing “a Gestapo type operation,” as well as being an “animal” and a “lunatic.” At one point, Trump suggested the special counsel’s investigation was “treasonous.”
But last week, the presumptive GOP nominee broke new ground, suggesting Smith “should be sanctioned“ for “attacking a highly respected Judge, Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over his FAKE Documents Hoax case in Florida.”
None of this reflected reality in any way. Cannon and the special counsel have, in fact, clashed over procedural matters, but (a) Smith never “attacked” the jurist; (b) no one seriously believes the controversial, Trump-appointed judge, whose competence and impartiality have repeatedly come into question, is “highly respected”; (c) the classified-documents case is neither “fake” nor a “hoax”; and (d) the idea that the prosecutor “should be sanctioned” for pressing Cannon to follow the law is hopelessly insane.
But the former president nevertheless returned to the subject yesterday, publishing a follow-up item to his social media platform. As Axios reported:
Former President Trump said President Biden and others were “working overtime to try to illegally intimidate and harass” Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Trump’s classified documents criminal case.
This actually understated matters a bit. In his online missive, the former president argued that President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Smith are trying to “illegally intimidate and harass” Cannon.
In other words, the presumptive GOP nominee would have the…
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