Dr. Phosphorous
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- Sep 3, 2024
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The disaster began when Jack Smith decided to try the case in Florida. Others in DOJ disagreed vehemently disagreed with Jack Smith on this decision, because they were rightfully worried that the case could end up in front of the hopelessly corrupt MAGA judge Aileen Cannon. And that is what happened.
From the Washington Post --
Federal prosecutor David Raskin was expecting that the criminal case he had helped build against former president Donald Trump would be filed in Washington, D.C., when a colleague bumped into him with surprising news: Their boss, special counsel Jack Smith, had decided to bring the case in Florida.
“Are you all f---ing insane?” Raskin blurted out to his fellow prosecutor on that spring day in 2023, in a hallway at a Justice Department building in D.C.
Smith and his top deputies had concluded that trying the case in Florida put them on firmer legal ground, reducing the risk of the most serious charges being overturned on appeal. And members of their team had initially calculated that there was just a 1 in 6 chance that a case in Florida would land in Cannon’s courtroom.
“I’m not worried about Florida,” Smith said later when presenting his decision to Justice Department officials.
But the early calculation of the odds that Cannon would get the case — and Smith’s faith that the evidence could win her over even after she did — turned out to be wrong.
Raskin, who had been investigating Trump for keeping dozens of classified documents at his Palm Beach golf club, was alarmed by what he saw as a huge gamble. In Florida, the case could wind up before U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump-appointed jurist who had already temporarily blocked federal agents from reviewing sensitive records seized from Trump’s club during the investigation.
This behind-the-scenes account reveals new details about the inner workings of Smith’s highly secretive team as he pushed it to complete a historic investigation in record time, including the venue choice that led to the unraveling of the most clear-cut criminal charges that Trump faced. It lays bare previously unreported dissension on the Smith team over how to manage the classified documents investigation. And it recounts for the first time Smith’s effort to remove Cannon from the case, an idea that a top Justice Department official rejected and that Smith never presented to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Smith’s decision to bring the documents case in Florida, rooted in an extensive internal legal analysis, ran counter to what Raskin and others believed was the surer path to a conviction: charging Trump in D.C.
From the Washington Post --
Federal prosecutor David Raskin was expecting that the criminal case he had helped build against former president Donald Trump would be filed in Washington, D.C., when a colleague bumped into him with surprising news: Their boss, special counsel Jack Smith, had decided to bring the case in Florida.
“Are you all f---ing insane?” Raskin blurted out to his fellow prosecutor on that spring day in 2023, in a hallway at a Justice Department building in D.C.
Smith and his top deputies had concluded that trying the case in Florida put them on firmer legal ground, reducing the risk of the most serious charges being overturned on appeal. And members of their team had initially calculated that there was just a 1 in 6 chance that a case in Florida would land in Cannon’s courtroom.
“I’m not worried about Florida,” Smith said later when presenting his decision to Justice Department officials.
But the early calculation of the odds that Cannon would get the case — and Smith’s faith that the evidence could win her over even after she did — turned out to be wrong.
Raskin, who had been investigating Trump for keeping dozens of classified documents at his Palm Beach golf club, was alarmed by what he saw as a huge gamble. In Florida, the case could wind up before U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump-appointed jurist who had already temporarily blocked federal agents from reviewing sensitive records seized from Trump’s club during the investigation.
This behind-the-scenes account reveals new details about the inner workings of Smith’s highly secretive team as he pushed it to complete a historic investigation in record time, including the venue choice that led to the unraveling of the most clear-cut criminal charges that Trump faced. It lays bare previously unreported dissension on the Smith team over how to manage the classified documents investigation. And it recounts for the first time Smith’s effort to remove Cannon from the case, an idea that a top Justice Department official rejected and that Smith never presented to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Smith’s decision to bring the documents case in Florida, rooted in an extensive internal legal analysis, ran counter to what Raskin and others believed was the surer path to a conviction: charging Trump in D.C.
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