A Tuesday court filing by special counsel Jack Smith’s team provided a big update on former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case. The filing noted that the Washington, D.C., grand jury finished its work last week.
“The disclosure of the grand jury’s completion on Aug. 17 was tucked into a footnote of a larger filing Smith’s lawyers submitted to the federal judge in South Florida who is now overseeing the indictment against the former president and co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira,” The Messenger reported.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, invalidated two of Smith’s sealed filings.
Kyle Cheney, a senior legal correspondent for POLITICO, wrote via X (Twitter): “Judge CANNON comes out swinging at special counsel this morning, striking two of prosecutors’ sealed filings and demanding an explanation of ‘the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding to continue to investigate’ the docs case.”
Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote that “The Special Counsel states in conclusory terms that the supplement should be sealed from public view ‘to comport with grand jury secrecy,’ but the motion for leave and the supplement plainly fail to satisfy the burden of establishing a sufficient legal or factual basis to warrant sealing the motion and supplement.”
She then denied the motion by the prosecution.
“Among other topics as raised in the Motion, the response shall address the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings on matters pertinent to the instant indicted matter in this district,” she wrote, adding that the prosecution to respond to these and other items by August 22nd.
Conservative reporter Julie Kelly tweeted: “I told you Judge Cannon is legit. She is not going to tolerate Jack Smith’s bullsh*t. This is gold–she asks defense to raise possible grand jury abuse by DOJ for conducting nearly all of the investigation in DC then switching to FLA at last minute for indictment.”
Kelly added that “Cannon also won’t tolerate DOJs nonstop requests for secrecy. She already denied a govt motion asking to keep names of 80+ witnesses under seal.”
Smith’s team responded in its filing this week to Cannon’s “legal propriety” question regarding Smith’s decision to impanel a grand jury in Washington, D.C., to examine the documents case rather than in Florida.
“When the Government started the grand jury investigation in the District of Columbia, it could not know the full scope of the evidence that would be gathered, but from the outset, the investigation encompassed conduct that spanned the District of Columbia and the Southern District of Florida, and the investigation uncovered evidence of federal offenses in both districts,” Smith’s team said.
It added: “The Government’s decision to ultimately bring charges in the Southern District of Florida and not in the District of Columbia does not call into question either grand jury’s investigation. The Government notes that the grand jury in the District of Columbia completed its term on August 17, 2023.”
Republicans in Florida have moved to protect Trump from what they believe is nothing more than a politically motivated charge.
Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, for instance, has threatened to call Smith before a congressional committee after the special counsel filed charges against Trump related to the Jan. 6 riot.
Gaetz took Smith to task, as well as fellow Republicans, after the filing.
“House Republicans should immediately demand that Jack Smith present himself for a transcribed interview with the Judiciary Committee in the next 15 days.,” Gaetz said in a Newsmax interview he posted to YouTube.
“If he does not do that, we should send a subpoena. If he ignores the subpoena, we should hold him in criminal contempt of the Congress, so that he is the first prosecutor in American history to prosecute a case while himself under criminal contempt,” Gaetz added.
