The attempted criminal prosecution of former President Donald Trump has been widely denounced as a politically motivated attempt to weaponize the U.S. Department of Justice and Special Counsel Jack Smith. Trump’s attorney, Jesse Binnall, has stated that his legal strategy will be “very simple”: to point out that Smith “has the entire law … wrong.”
The substance of Smith’s indictment of Trump for his efforts to contest the 2020 election is highly suspect. Experts have noted that much of the conduct described in the indictment may be protected by the First Amendment, as well as the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
“This is an attack not just on the First Amendment, but on the Sixth Amendment,” said Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz. “Jack Smith’s prosecutors are completely ignoring the protections in the Bill of Rights.”
“Jack Smith is terrified that Donald Trump is going to be elected again because Jack Smith is actually the one terrified of democracy,” said Binnall. “Democracy would bring accountability for him and quite honestly his out-of-control prosecutors in an out-of-control Justice Department. This is a politically weaponized DOJ trying to go after Donald Trump without any legal basis to do so.”
Trump’s key rivals for the Republican nomination in 2024 – such as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy – have all condemned Smith’s indictment.
This type of politically motivated prosecution is an affront to the Constitution and our nation’s long-held tradition of respect for the rule of law. As Binnall stated: “The legal strategy in this case I think is very simple: You attack the facts that Jack Smith put out that are wrong for instance, Jack Smith claiming, as you already pointed out, that Donald Trump did anything other than call for peace and patriotism on January 6th is wrong, and then you attack the law, because Jack Smith has the entire law in this case wrong, and more importantly, he is ignoring the Constitution of the United States.”
By attempting to criminally prosecute Trump without any legal basis, Smith’s indictment is a clear violation of First and Sixth Amendment rights. We can only hope that the courts will reject this politically motivated prosecution and instead uphold the important Constitutional protections that help to safeguard our democracy.