Democrats love to create fake political attacks, and issues, then keep hammering them no matter how dead they become. Remember how they held on to Russiagate long after it was debunked. Now they continue to make noises like there is still some life left in DOJ Hit Man Jack Smith's special counsel prosecutions. Stop beating a dead horse already. SCOTUS gave Trump nearly blanket immunity, or at least ammunition to delay the J6 and Secret Document cases into oblivion. The legitimacy of Smith's selection as special counsel is being adjudicated by Judge Canon. Fani Willis is down the tubes, by her own doing, Juan and Alvin look to be throwing in the lawfare towel. Dems should be worried about their own legal defense considering the polls. PG 4 CGR
WAPO, July 3, 2024. Justice Department officials plan to pursue the criminal cases against Donald Trump past Election Day even if he wins, under the belief that department rules against charging or prosecuting a sitting president would not kick in until Inauguration Day in January, according to people familiar with the discussions.
That approach may become more consequential given this week’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, which probably will lead to further delays to Trump’s election interference trial in D.C. and has already affected one of his state cases.
Senior law enforcement officials have long viewed the two federal indictments against Trump — the 45th president and the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s election — as operating with potential time constraints. That’s because of long-standing Justice Department policy that officials cannot criminally charge a sitting president.
Lawyers in the department do not believe the policy bars them from proceeding against a president-elect, however, according to the people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
The plan to continue filing motions, seeking court hearings, and potentially conducting a trial between Election Day and Inauguration Day underscores the highly unusual nature of prosecuting not just a former president, but also possibly a future one. In the months after winning election, a president-elect assumes some of the trappings of the office, such as more security and high-level briefings, but that person is not the commander in chief.
In the midst of a presidential election in which criminal cases have played a central role, any court activity involving a president-elect would push American politics deeper into uncharted territory. Ultimately, it would be up to the courts to decide when and how to hold hearings or a trial involving a president-elect.
“The Justice Department isn’t governed by the election calendar. Its prosecution of Trump is based on the law, the facts and the Justice Manual — the department’s bible that lays out the post-Watergate norms that have prevented it from being weaponized,” said Anthony Coley, a former Justice Department spokesman for Attorney General Merrick Garland who left the agency last year. “Until those norms change, or they’re ordered otherwise, I’d expect this Justice Department to be full speed ahead. And they should be.”
Current officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, expressed the same sentiment — that if Trump wins the election, the clock on the two federal cases against him would keep ticking until Jan. 20, when he would be sworn in as the 47th president.
A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith declined to comment. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the criminal cases against Trump are “hoaxes” that “are imploding as their collective efforts to interfere in the election have massively backfired.”
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